


HoloAfterLive

by wrsw



Series: HoloAfterLive [1]
Category: Hololive, Virtual Streamer Animated Characters
Genre: Action, Adventure, Afterlife, Attempt at Humor, Except maybe KanaCoco, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Memory Loss, The pairings are pretty light and not that romantic, no beta: we die like yagoo's dream, this is definitely a bad idea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 34,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29258865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrsw/pseuds/wrsw
Summary: Shirakami Fubuki always said that she's hololive's #1 fan.The world ending and everyone dying with it did not change that fact. It just meant she needed to get the group back together.
Relationships: Amane Kanata/Kiryuu Coco, Inugami Korone/Nekomata Okayu, Minato Aqua/Murasaki Shion, Sakura Miko/Usada Pekora, Shiranui Flare/Shirogane Noel
Series: HoloAfterLive [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2191593
Comments: 73
Kudos: 117
Collections: HoloAfterLive





	1. Welcome to Heaven, friend!

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Amelia Watson's Weird Time Shenanigans](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29044080) by [wrsw](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrsw/pseuds/wrsw). 



> Inspired by the Omake (yes, just the Omake) to the Intervention arc from my own "Amelia Watson's Weird Time Shenanigans" - we're following the timeline where the world ended and everyone died.
> 
> While I won't say this is the worst idea I've ever had, it's certainly up there. Yet, for some reason, here I am. And despite the fact that this is a completely ridiculous idea, this isn't a full fic-length Omake or anything. While, yes, it will have its fair share of non-serious moments as well - in a weird inverse, the underworld chapters will likely be the least serious ones - the fact is that a few characters aren't going to be immediately accepting of their mortality, and not everyone actually made it directly to Heaven.
> 
> I'm not using the Japanese quotes this time, mostly because they're a pain to type and it can be safely assumed (unless otherwise specified) that everyone's in Japanese this time around. In the event that hololiveEN shows up, I'll designate a special set of quotes for English use there; but as this fic is mostly focused on the hololive main branch it'd be too much of a pain to keep track of.
> 
> EDIT: You might notice that the series AND collection this fic is a part of now (NOTE: I'm new to AO3, so if you don't see the collection, that's because I haven't finished setting it up yet)! The plot lines have finally gotten complex enough that it's time to split the arcs. It also makes sense, because this cast is large enough that there are a LOT of potential one-shots here and there that are easily possible to write in the HoloAfterLive universe, which is why I'm opening up this universe for anyone to write in (not that I could really stop people if anyone else wanted to, but I'm switching from that to actively encouraging it). See the note at the end of the fic for details.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, remind me not to write at 1 AM anymore, there were a lot of mistakes (which are now fixed). Maybe this is why some people actually have betas for this stuff.

**Shirakami Fubuki** was surprised to find out that the afterlife was a bunch of rather nondescript administrative buildings. She wasn't sure _what_ she was expecting, but she was sure it was supposed to be flashier than this.

She supposed that the end of the world did throw a wrench to the whatever managers ran the afterlife - suddenly adding billions of souls to the afterlife couldn't be easy. That being said, she was getting somewhat bored waiting in the lobby alongside a whole bunch of other recently departed. She realized she was lucky; at least she was inside the lobby, instead of waiting in the chaotic mess of a line from outside of it. Presumably, there's supposed to be someone who actually knows where to direct people from here.

She didn't recognize anyone in the room. _Then again_ , she thought, _I guess all of Tokyo got annihilated together; my friends are probably just further down the line._

It was while waiting that an angel came to her. This was made less impressive by said angel doing so in the most mundane manner possible: one of the doors to the lobby opened, and an angel serving the administration of life and death walked out.

The angel's name is **Amane Kanata** , and she was the angel of the now-former entertainment group hololive. She looked so _utterly_ bored; carrying the long standing facial expression of somebody who's work routine was just that - pure, mechanical, and incredibly repetitive routine.

 _It makes sense_ , Fubuki thought, _she was from Heaven originally - though, really, she doesn't look like she's enjoying this._ Shirakami Fubuki, ever the optimist, decided that, if nothing else, she could help brighten her friend's day; she could clearly use some casual talk to clear things up. As far as Fubuki was concerned, friends don't let friends suffer through this much pure nothing.

"Kana-tan! Hi!"

Kanata looked to the speaker, then handed Fubuki a clipboard with a pencil and a sheet of paper.

"Please fill out this field, leave out anything you don't remember. Raise your hand when you finish filling it out."

It was spoken in the well-rehearsed monotone of somebody who had both made this speech thousands of times and somebody who was frankly done caring about making this speech anymore.

Fubuki frowned. This place was no fun, but she supposed the only way to continue would be to fill out the paperwork - cooperate for now, see if you can figure out something later.

The form was exactly as bland as everything else, containing a field for her name, and another for describing herself and what things she did in life.

As it stood, she remembered everything - all of the great times she had at hololive, right up until the rather unfortunate apocalypse and subsequent death of everyone. She recalled dying instantly when the blast wave hit; her memory of life immediately ended at that point. That was probably lucky of her, as drawing it out and dying in agonizing pain would definitely be a less pleasant way to go. She filled out the form accordingly; when it was done, she raised her hand. Kanata took the form from Fubuki, and then turned around, making her way to the door she came from. 

"Follow me."

Fubuki frowned, but otherwise said nothing - being an angel, this was Kanata's day job, apparently. She did as instructed, following Kanata through the door. A brief elevator ride and another hallway later, she followed Kanata into a room that was _much_ larger than the could reasonably fit behind the hallway she just walked out of. The layout, while Fubuki had had the luck to never see in-person back while she was alive, was something that nonetheless she recognized: a courtroom. Atop the judge's bench sat an angel with long red hair, tied into twintails that reached down to her elbows. Fubuki took the defendant's chair.

The angel spoke with a surprisingly calm voice. "I am **Kurumi, the Absolute Angel**. I will oversee your trial. Amane-san, please submit Shirakami-san's files."

Fubuki did not like the use of the honorific; that was a level of politeness and enforced professionalism that was never associated with things going well. She watched Kanata hand her paperwork over to Kurumi, who looked at the paperwork with a wholly serious and unchanging expression, then looked over to the side of the courtroom. Fubuki turned her head to see what Kurumi was looking at, only to catch sight of an Oni; in this case, a mostly human-looking girl with a pair of horns on the top of her head.

The Oni's name is **Nakiri Ayame** , also formerly of the hololive live streamer group.

"Nakiri-san, please submit the mortal record."

Ayame walked up to the bench and submitted her own version of the form.

Fubuki breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Ayame; unlike Kanata, who had apparently resigned herself to strict by-the-afterlife-books professionalism, Ayame looked like she was trying really hard to not burst out into laughter. Fubuki really wished she just go ahead and do so; Ayame's laugh was among those things that improved the day of those who heard it all by itself. Fubuki felt that a friend's laugh could lighten the atmosphere around the room, and she could really use that.

Kurumi looked at Ayame's paper. She paused, looking slightly annoyed.

"Ayame."

Ayame replied with a smile. "Yes!"

"You were tasked with submitting the mortal record of Shirakami Fubuki."

"And I did!"

Kurumi sighed. "Ayame, this is nothing but a long form paper on how, and I quote, 'Fubuki-chan' is the best friend one could ever have."

Fubuki blushed. I mean, yes, she would never deny being a great friend by just about any definition for the word one could come up with, but it was kind of embarrassing for it to come up at an official trial of your soul.

And finally, having held it in for too long, Ayame finally _did_ burst out into laughter. "But that's who Fubuki-chan was in life! That's totally an accurate mortal record!"

Fubuki smiled, and then laughed with her.

A reverberant _THWACK!_ of the gavel sounded throughout the courtroom.

Ayame and Fubuki both cringed.

Kurumi's impassive tone broke. "Ayame, I understand she was your friend, and I understand you were recruited for this job only very recently, but _you_ need to understand we have administrative reasons for doing this. _Please_ take the job seriously, or I have to escalate this to the higher-ranked angels; trust me when I say you _do not want to get involved with them_."

Ayame backed away sheepishly.

Fubuki had enough of this, and decided to ask: "What would those reasons be?"

Kurumi's impassive tone slipped back on. "First and foremost to determine how much of your life you remember. You see, Amnesia is a common-"

"Then I remember everything! I remember my life, I remember the end right up until my death, and I remember all of my wonderful friends, like Ayame-chan or-"

Kurumi sighed again. "Shirakami-san, I'm sorry to say you might have to refer to Ayame-chan as 'former' friend - she's an underworldly being, and, well, you are not."

"I'm not being sent to the underworld?"

"Shirakami Fubuki, you are perhaps one of the most pure-hearted and overall wonderful mortal beings to grace the world, back when life was still possible. Every single one of your friends would only speak positively of your interactions - and that's not counting the ones who got here before you and have already spoken positively - and, while admittedly you are arguably a little over-excitable at times, we don't hold that as a sin, and even if we did, you're hardly the worst offender. While normally we have a full trial to run, we're behind schedule, and to be honest, out of the three afterlives - Heaven, Hell, and the in-between-"

Fubuki tilted her head. "The in-between?"

"Unlike Heaven, which is usually only referred to by similar names, and the underworld known as Hell, for which most terms are generally understood, the in-between has no formal term for it; it's called by many different titles, such as: the in-between, Purgatory, the astral plane, the chaos zone-"

"Chaos zone?!"

"It's a place where the souls of those who passed shape the realm themselves according to their own whims; it results in there being few rules. Now, a few of your friends are already waiting in Heaven for you; I wouldn't keep them waiting." Kurumi smiled, and pointed behind Fubuki.

And like by clockwork, the doors behind her opened - only, they didn't lead back into the hallway, but instead connected to a portal; on the other side was the sky, and presumably, Fubuki's designated afterlife.

Fubuki turned to Ayame. She had a tearful smile in her eyes.

"You deserve this, Fubuki-chan. The realm of demons is home for me; Heaven will be your home, in time."

Fubuki frowned. Being separated from a good friend for the rest of eternity simply because she belonged to a different afterlife seemed unfair.

As if reading her mind, Kurumi replied: "You don't strike me as the kind of person to wish for it, but some of the angels do have the right kind of magic to help you forget your mortal life if your memories become too painful. In the worst case scenario, you can be also be transferred downwards - though, if you've made it to Heaven, most prefer to stay there. People generally prefer to be transferred up; the opposite direction is exceedingly rare."

Fubuki shook her head. It's painful, but remembering her friends, even the ones she theoretically could never meet again, was the only right thing to do; it wasn't even a choice. The entire separation thing was unfair, regardless of what anyone said. She walked through the gateway to Heaven, with only one thought in her mind:

_We'll all get together again one day._

* * *

"Wow!"

Fubuki walked out into the Heavens. She wasn't entirely sure how she knew, but as far as she could tell, you were blessed with some basic knowledge of the Heavenly realm upon entering it; the first thing she was aware of was how _tall_ the heavenly realm was; the realm was a huge array of floating structures and apparently solid clouds going on for miles both around and upwards - looking down made Fubuki realize that she was standing on a cloud, which, from her knowledge of the living realm, aren't normally solid.

Everything in this realm was shaped by belief; thus, souls that went here shaped this realm in the way that they felt it was supposed to be. The sun lay directly above, unchanging in its position; the temperature was surprisingly cool, but overall extremely pleasant.

It was majestic. It was peaceful.

Unbeknownst to the fox-tailed, another figure had taken a position on a cloud directly underneath her. This person was the owner of a pair of keenly sensitive wolf ears, and had started taking position from the instant Fubuki had entered. 

**Ookami Mio** leaped up _through_ the cloud Fubuki was standing on, with the intent of catching Fubuki in a hug while she's off-guard.

"Fubuki-senpai!"

Fubuki's reflexes were fast, however, and she turned and responded with open arms; this would be the first fellow hololive member she had encountered that wasn't busy with administrative duties, and she felt that after going through the literal end of the world, she had earned this much.

"Mio-chan!"

The two took a rather long moment to embrace. Time, after all, was now an infinite resource; enjoying the moment was the only thing that could even happen anymore.

Mio, separating from Fubuki, broke the silence: "It took you long enough to arrive!"

Fubuki took a moment to ponder the implication, before responding: "Who else is here?"

"Sora, AZKi, and myself - we're not sure where everyone else is. Kanata also lives here, but she's working for the life-and-death administration, and we have no idea when she'll be done."

Fubuki looked melancholically at her friend. "I ran into Ayame on the way up - she's going to go home to the underworld. She can't come up here."

Mio said nothing, but the implications were made just that bit more clear: A large number of them weren't going to make it to Heaven - Mel, being a vampire, would never live in a realm where the sun never sets (1); Choco and Ayame were demons; Rushia, as a necromancer, was probably violating some protocol that made her ineligible; Towa, being a devil by species, was right out, and Calliope was a grim reaper and thus contractually underworld-bound (2). That was excluding the many who were probably sent to the in-between realm; those with a greater karmic debt, even if they were generally considered good people, would mostly likely have to do a stint below heaven.

That could be a lot of their friends, temporarily or permanently denied entry into Heaven.

Mio frowned, falling over into the fluffy cloud and lying down. Tears formed in her eyes, though she smiled.

"Little Ayame's gone back home, hasn't she? It was nice, while we were alive. I wish I got the chance to say goodbye. Still, it's nice to have someone else here - Sora and AZKi went right back into music, because, well, what else were they going to do?"

Mio laughed, before adding: "Sora gets frustrated by this, but the rest of her angelic fans - of which she already has some - call her performances 'after-lives'."

Fubuki laughed. Sora would continue being Sora, even in death - and the admittedly cheesy term for her performances was a very Tokino Sora problem to have. If anyone could keep up the hope of hololive going even after the world ended, it would be her.

"Let's not keep her waiting! I'm sure she'll be happy to see more of her friends!"

Fubuki immediately jumped, ready to adventure forth. When she got to the edge of the cloud they were standing on, she froze, immediately realizing there was a problem:

"Wait, how do we get around here? There's no ground!"

Mio broke out into laughter at Fubuki's turn around.

"I think I need to teach you how to manifest your wings - that's part of the whole 'skyworld' package; don't worry too much, flying is easy! You just gotta believe in yourself!"

* * *

**Tokino Sora** and **AZKi** were both relaxing in their little wooden house, left floating in the lower portion of skyworld.

Small abodes like this, if what Sora heard was correct, were pretty common for new residents; usually the rush of dying and everything else to do with passing on left people tired and simply looking for a peaceful place to rest; finding a more personalized place to call a more permanent home took longer, and generally involved exploring more outwards into the heavenly realm. She'd work her way up there; she was fine actually taking a break, for now - dying seemed like a good time to try and reorganize her thoughts.

She thought about her friends. It was bittersweet; she couldn't deny that she was very proud of what she'd accomplished back in the mortal realm, but she did want to see her fellow hololive members once again. She'd ran into Mio earlier, and she was hoping that at least a couple other members would join her up here.

Granted, she might want to establish a building with more presence instead of a building with the exact opposite of presence, but she supposed that was a problem for future Sora to worry about - time was, at this point, an infinite resource. She was somewhat lost in thought when she heard a voice.

"I'm out of control! You said this was easy!"

"Look, you just gotta keep calm!"

Sora and AZKi looked out the window of their cabin, and realized the voices were coming from two of her friends. As it turned out, flying actually wasn't that easy, and both Mio and Fubuki were demonstrating this by shouting and rapidly mapping a collision course with the window of the house.

"Just stop!"

"I don't know how!"

Sora motioned to AZKi, with no words spoken, but a very clear intent: _DODGE!_

AZKi dived out of the way. Sora opened the window, and then calmly took a few steps to the side.

About a half-second after taking her last step, a very disoriented Fubuki flew directly into the open window and set a new collision course with the floor of the house, face-first. Her wings were fairy-like; they were thin, translucent, and had a subtle glow in a shade of light blue. They were clearly not actually physically providing lift, meaning that Fubuki was, in fact, entirely misunderstanding how to manipulate the magic that granted flight in the heavenly realm. After waiting a few seconds face-down, she dismissed the wings.

Sora raised her hands to her mouth in surprise. She figured Fubuki would master flying; it just seemed like something Fubuki would do.

Before she could speak, she was interrupted by Fubuki's very temporary flight teacher, Mio:

"Fubuki-senpai!"

Who then also proceeded to crash into Sora's floor face-first, right beside Fubuki. Her wings, similar in nature, glowing a shade of light green. She dismissed them quickly.

Sora maintained a polite smile.

"Hello, Fubuki-chan. Perhaps we should all find someone who can explain to us how to fly - I don't understand how it works, either."

For all of the crazy of the past 15 seconds, she was truly happy to see Fubuki here with her - Sora had been uncomfortably early, and waiting for the others to show up alone wasn't much fun - if anything, it reminded her of the very beginning of hololive, when the group was just her. Dying was no fun, but having her best friends alongside her meant that the afterlife couldn't be all _too_ bad.

Mio got up slowly after her crash. Fubuki practically sprang back up to her feet; she was excited to see a face both familiar and friendly. And, yes, while she did admittedly meet her senpai by crashing into her house, just the fact that she was able to live that carefree had taken the edge off of dying; the freedom to blunder in this manner, while possibly embarrassing, was also joyful - she didn't have to take everything too seriously up in heaven.

"Sora-chan! You're actually here!"

Sora smiled, as she almost always did. "Yes! Is there anyone else with you?"

Mio frowned. "Not yet, but there's a few of us that won't be able to join us, perhaps forever. Ayame's home is the underworld - she's from the realm of demons, and as such can't set foot in the realm of angels. Towa's literally a devil."

Sora simply looked disappointed. It wasn't surprising, but it still hurt to know that a few members of hololive had exactly zero chances of ever coming up to meet her. It was frankly unfair, and in life-

Fubuki cleared her throat, tired of the mood: "Are we really going to give up on them that easily? We're hololive! We barely followed the rules back in life! Why would that change now in death?"

Mio responded by making a terrible joke: "Because we're holoDead now!"

Fubuki thought about it: "I mean, I guess we're kind of back, so we could call the new group...HoloAfterLive!"

Sora just facepalmed; attempting to reform hololive was an idea that was equal parts endearing and completely crazy.

It really made the place feel like home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1): One might argue, "Wait, aren't they all already dead and thus can't actually die again?" to which I will admittedly say I don't have a counterpoint at the moment, but I do plan to actually address that at some point.
> 
> (2): Though, actually, in this specific case, Calliope's actually still physically in the mortal realm - there's one last human who has stayed alive, and she intends to kill her personally (See my previous work for details on that).
> 
> EDIT: I'm taking a page from lightningstormtc (he's the writer of the somehow even more chaotic KFP-verse) and opening up the universe! Mostly because this universe is quite large and honestly it'd be interesting to see what people's takes on it are, now that we've finally gotten things relatively developed in all three afterlives. I don't know if anyone wants to join this (the three-afterlife setup kind of makes any sufficiently advanced plot a mess of spaghetti plotlines), but there's also just plainly a lot of really fun room for interpretation, and also there's several characters who still don't actually have future plotlines established at all (The full list: All of holostars, all of hololiveCN except Doris, all of hololiveID except Moona, and then: Roboco, Suisei, Matsuri, AkiRose, Haato/Haachama, Watame, Nene, Polka, and Nene), which means there's still quite a bit of maneuvering room left in this universe.
> 
> So, if anyone else wants to write for this, I'm all ears (though, as a warning, if you do a holoEN plot arc, it WILL be declared non-canonical (though I might keep it in the collection if I like it, and my standards aren't terribly high) as I have my own plot already planned for that - remember that Amelia is still alive as of this fic, though not for that much longer - remember that we're in the apocalypse timeline). Also, feel free to use Kurumi if you feel like doing any other trial scenes, though you may want to substitute a different angel if you find Kurumi's hardline formal lawful neutral annoying to write (I certainly can find it restrictive, though that's by design).
> 
> If you have anything you want to ask, I can be emailed at wrswest@gmail.com, reached via DM on twitter (@wrsw7), or DM on discord (wrsw#0132), which is probably my most reachable platform.


	2. Return to the Underworld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Towa definitely isn't an angel.
> 
> Totally isn't.
> 
> Anyone who argues otherwise is lying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't forgotten Amelia Watson's Weird Time Shenanigans.
> 
> I'm just having too much fun writing this.
> 
> As a warning, this chapter has a lot of exposition on the mechanics on the underworld as I have envisioned it; this should be one of the very few times that the exposition-to-story ratio is skewed this far to the former.

Nakiri Ayame stepped into the empty street in the underworld city she called home, thinking to herself. Most of this particular district was asleep at the moment; while the underworld didn’t strictly have a day-night cycle, sometimes it acted like it did.

She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, now that hololive was over. As much as she hated to admit it, she was not a paperwork person, and there just wasn’t as much use for swords in the modern underworld as there used to be. After the incident with Fubuki, she was likely not going to be asked to write another mortal record again.

She was fine with that.

Not that Ayame wanted the ‘old days’ back, either. The pre-reform mid-underworld was not terribly pleasant for either former mortals or demons alike; ‘bigger sword’ diplomacy was more or less the law of the land. Those who weren’t demonically empowered often found themselves on fire, and those who _were_ found themselves fighting those higher up on the totem pole.

As a result, the reforms for a more organized underworld were something that Ayame supported back in those days; though she didn’t understand the true ramifications of it back when she started. If nothing else, the rest of her friends wouldn’t have liked Ayame as much if she had joined before the demonic reformation period.

One of the benefits of her support was that she got to be first in line for modernization; having access to the newest electronic hardware and an internet connection would be what made her debut in hololive possible.

She even ended up getting permission (1) from the angels to meet up with her friends in the mortal realm to perform on-stage together with them. It was a pain, but it was entirely worth it. She’d never admit it to the rest of her demonic cohort, but her time in the mortal realm was probably the best time she ever had; she never thought she’d get so attached to mortal friends.

 _Former mortal friends_ , Ayame reminded herself. As an Oni, she was bound to the demon world, and aside from the few friends she had who were also native to the underworld, she wasn’t going to be able to see them again, unless some of them somehow got judged as a sinner and sent down here; that seemed unlikely.

She hoped that wasn’t the case; the realm of the demons was overall not a pleasant afterlife. It wasn’t designed to be.

Ayame looked at the swords she still had with her. She kept them around as a relic of her pre-reform days; though, even in the modern underworld, you never knew when you needed a sword. It was just handy to have around owing to the nature of the region Ayame called home.

The underworld, post-reform, was divided into three large distinct regions: the upper region, the middle region, and the lower region. In general, the lower down you went, the less pleasant the underworld was; the upper and middle regions were populated by demons of various species, whereas only devils tended to willingly call the lower region their home.

As the middle point between the ‘chill’ underworld and the ‘fire and brimstone’ underworld, the mid-underworld was pretty chaotic; the souls of the formerly living tended towards acting rashly and picking fights when they had the spiritual power to do so, and the demons down here tended to be empowered and as a result very flashy with their magic - they tended to be show-off types.

The result of this was that there was a _lot_ of ambient spiritual power swirling around the center of the underworld; and on occasion that spiritual power manifested in the physical form of a monster.

In this specific case, it manifested into a tall, emaciated-looking, humanoid monster. The lower part of its rib cage and spinal column was exposed, and perhaps somewhat alarmingly, its hands were glowing with fire (2).

Ayame stared down the empty street, eyes on the monster.

That was all the provocation it needed. It raised its hands, and immediately set a pillar of flame upon Ayame.

Ayame’s response to being immediately set on fire was equal parts quick and tactical: she dived into an alleyway and drew both swords. She looked at the pillar of fire on the location that was last in the monster’s line of sight, and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long; the monster was impatient. Upon the vile creature walking around the corner, Ayame struck with her swords. A few slashes later and the monster fell to pieces, safely disposed of, with Ayame more-or-less not harmed; the fire wasn’t too harmful to an Oni like her.

The same could not be said about her clothes; which, while still fully intact, now bore a large number of scorch marks.

“Oh, come on! I just got here!”

Deciding that she needed to indulge a bit after that annoyance, Ayame decided to take a quick stop at her local demon coffee shop.

* * *

The local demon coffee shop was a small establishment, but it was a cozy place in a very uncozy city, and that was enough for Ayame to appreciate it.

She was a regular here, and for the most part, a fairly unusual regular - she was known for ordering drinks that were much more on the sweet side; whereas most demons preferred coffee that was, to quote the sign on the front of the place, ‘hotter and more bitter than hell itself’ (3).

It was one of those rare times that Ayame cursed her venture to the mortal realm; demons weren’t generally known for their sweet tooth, and now that she had a taste of it, she missed it.

Ayame was going to order, but the Oni caught sight of an unusual figure at her usual table - a devil. Devils tended to reside in the lower underworld; and they were terrifying enough that even demonkind generally stayed away from them. This particular devil had violet hair, and was sipping a coffee (4) while staring intently at the table.

This particular devil was **Tokoyami Towa** , and her appearance in the middle region was weird, to say the least.

* * *

“Towa?”

Towa looked up from her seat.

“Oh, Ayame. Hi.”

Ayame tilted her head, being slightly confused. “What are you doing here? I thought you lived in the lower region.”

Towa sighed, clearly embarrassed while not wanting to show it.

“I...I kind of got kicked out of the ranks of the devils for being too nice to the souls of the violent.”

Ayame smirked. “Oh my god, your time with us really did soften you. Towa Maji Tens-” (5)

Towa cut Ayame off: “I’m a devil. They just don’t understand my ways.”

“So, uh, what did they kick you for?”

Towa explained. “In the lower underworld, the devilkin generally commit acts of violence against those who were violent themselves in mortal life. I thought of a much better approach, in which I deliberately act peaceful; the souls of the violent don’t understand peace, and as such have no idea how to react when I don’t strike them with my-”

At this point, Ayame failed to hold back her laughter and broke out into hysterical giggles.

“Towa, this is _literally_ exactly how angels operate with sinners they’re tasked with reforming. Like, keep this up and you’ll get promoted to archangel! I think I might need to take you to Choco-sensei to actually learn how to act like a demon down here!”

Towa simply hit the table they were sitting at as a response to that.

* * *

The upper region of the underworld, in comparison to everything below it, was surprisingly calm in nature. It was the portion of the underworld reserved for souls who were, in mortal life, closer to ‘badly misguided’ than outright evil; and, as a result, while this served as a punishment for the negligence, it was also designed to be something one could work their way out of if they were willing to have the self-awareness to recognize their flaws and work past them (6), and as a result the punishments tended to range anywhere from ‘regularly scheduled slap on the wrist’ to ‘literally eternal unpleasant weather’.

 **Yuzuki Choco** had taken up residence in the ‘bad summer’ zone, as it was informally called. For those who were previously mortal, the constant high temperatures and literally eternal humidity would be incredibly bothersome. Not that it was actually going to hurt; unpleasantness was the name of the game in the upper region, not outright torture.

Not that it was actually summer; this was the underworld, where the sun never shines; all light, as a result, was entirely artificial and magically generated. It just so happened that this region also had artificial humidity.

Between that and the ‘bad winter’ section, it was an easy choice; she still had a relatively short commute to her station as a demonic nurse, and for the most part her demonic biology wasn’t bothered by the eternal summer thing; if anything, she did better with the heat.

That being said, her home was still relatively humble; despite her reputation for attracting just about everyone to her, she lived alone, her address in the underworld known to only a select couple of people.

One said person knocked on her door.

Choco opened the door, and addressed the only person that it could be: “Nakiri Ayame! What brings you-

She then noticed the other underworldly being that Ayame had brought along.

“Towa? What are you doing so far up from your home?”

Towa pouted. “The rest of the devilkin don’t understand me.”

Ayame clarified. “She got kicked out for acting too much like an angel.”

Choco lightly chuckled in that way one does if they aren’t as prone to hysterical laughter.

“Ah, and you didn’t feel like taking her in yourself, Ayame?”

Ayame got faux offended at considering the possibility. “Choco, you know my reputation with my swords! I’d be dragged into a fight with her once it was outed I was living with a devil!”

Choco smiled.

“I didn’t mean to offend, though I’ll admit I don’t think this is a great place for her, either - this place was very much carved out for myself. You should go further up and see if Mel’s willing to take you in - her residence is cozy, and definitely has enough room. It’s located further in the upper region.”

* * *

While it could be considered unfair that vampires were assigned to the underworld by default, there was a logic to it - vampires don’t do well with the sun, so having their default afterlife be a realm where the sun never shines actually was the best for them, even if it resulted in the bad image of vampires almost always going to the underworld.

One of these vampires, **Yozora Mel** , looked out from her underground keep. Some would argue that it was somewhat excessive (7) for the young vampire to essentially have a mini-castle for a home, but a number of folks calling themselves the ‘eternal Kapu-min’ insisted that the vampire should get to at least live somewhere fit for a vampire. It wasn’t a full-sized palace or anything; but it was significantly larger than a home fit for a single occupant.

Mel had to admit that she was impressed at the architecture; the tower managed to retain elements both of European castle design - something more traditionally fit for a vampire - and elements of traditional Japanese architecture, which admittedly made the place feel like an actual home; she was grateful for that much.

That being said, she did feel lonely in her new underworld home. She would readily admit that she really wanted to see her mortal friends again. She’d almost be willing to walk into the sun to catch up with them again.

Mel was so lost in thought that she hadn’t realized that one of the few friends that was still with her had managed to sneak up on her.

“Yo! Dayo!”

Yozora Mel leapt backwards out of surprise; she wasn’t expecting visitors, let alone an Oni. She found herself face-to-face with one Nakiri Ayame, and she realized she hadn’t come alone; Choco and Towa were with her.

Ayame wasted no time with her intent: “I want to talk to you about Towa!”

* * *

_A few minutes later..._

Mel, Choco, Ayame, and Towa sat around a table, talking about the situation surrounding Towa. Choco finished the explanation.

“So that’s where we’re at. I’m sorry to spring this on you so suddenly, but out of all of us who are still underworld-bound, I figured you had the best chance of having the space to accommodate a new roommate.”

Mel smiled.

“Of course I am! Honestly, it’s kind of lonely living here alone.”

Towa smiled.

“This increases my reach as a devil, too - no one expects a devil to be hanging around the upper region of the underworld!”

Mel didn’t seem to notice Towa’s statement, opting to continue on her previous thought: “Actually, Choco, now that I think about it, why don’t you and Ayame join me and live up here? This place has enough room for all of us.”

Ayame thought about it for all of one second.

“Sure!”

Choco thought about it a bit longer, though not that much longer.

“It’ll make my work commute that much longer, but I think I’ll also elect to move in; I think our dear _angel_ could use the company.”

Towa hit the table in response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) One might argue that demons don’t generally obey rules and thus don’t need permission, but on the other hand, the demons, as a whole, prefer to not make the angels mad at them. They’re pretty terrifying when they’re mad.
> 
> (2) Bonus points to whoever can figure out from description alone exactly what monster I’m referencing - it is a specific kind of monster from a specific video game.
> 
> (3) That reference is made more hilarious by the fact that the shop is in fact actually located in Hell, meaning that the comparison is actually a lot more objective.
> 
> (4) Towa would pretend to order her coffee black, while never actually drinking her coffee black. She doesn’t like the bitterness; her taste was nearly as corrupted as Ayame’s.
> 
> (5) I should be translating that as ‘Towa really is an angel’, but the whole ‘TMT’ phrase is a well-known enough meme that I’m sticking the Japanese phrase in the English translated sentence. Certain Japanese phrases, if they’re well-known enough, will generally be left in Japanese for effect.
> 
> (6) Technically, this was true of all souls punished in the underworld, but the kinds of souls that tended to end up in lower regions didn’t tend to be the kind that performed the self-reflection necessary to be released.
> 
> (7) The list of people who argued against having a mini-castle built for Yozora Mel happened to include one Yozora Mel.


	3. ...And Everything In-Between

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Memory loss is not a rare occurrence for souls making the transition to their eternal afterlife.”  
> \- Judge Kurumi, the Absolute Angel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this begins the 'fantasy arc', (despite only currently featuring one member of HoloFantasy), which is the first actual plot arc this story has running.
> 
> I really did poor Aqua dirty here. I hope you aren't too mad about it.
> 
> So, uh, remember how I said this fic was mostly going to be entirely lighthearted? I might have to back on that, because, this arc might actually start taking itself seriously. Not that there won't be some absurdity involved, but, yeah, there might be an attempt or two to write something that's somewhat legitimately heartfelt, such as this chapter. I hope I don't screw it up too badly; writing seriously is not necessarily my strong suit.

_“Memory loss is not a rare occurrence for souls making the transition to their eternal afterlife.”_

* * *

**Minato Aqua** woke up, in a bed that didn’t seem familiar to her.

She wasn’t sure where she was; or how she had gotten here.

Scratch that, she wasn’t sure of anything; her memory was entirely drawing a blank. She wished she knew where she was. But her mind, no matter how hard she tried to think, simply reacted with nothing; a blank void where her memory should be. Turning her head but not actually leaving the bed, she observed her surroundings.

She was in a little wooden cottage, in a relatively quaint little bedroom. She could hear that someone was up outside the door.

She said nothing. For all she knows, she was kidnapped. Or maybe something weird and supernatural happened; that happens when you’re friends with…

_Who? Why did I start that thought?_

She curled her legs up to her body, and cried.

_Did I even have friends?_

That appeared to get the attention of the cottage’s other inhabitant.

The door opened, revealing a white-haired witch, carrying the broomstick and wearing the pointy hat. She seemed relieved, though for what reason Aqua wasn’t sure.

“Aqua! You’re awake! I’m...I’m really glad to see you around here.”

The witch’s name was **Murasaki Shion** , and she’s checking up on one of her best friends, now that Aqua had shown up in the afterlife.

She wasn’t ready for Aqua’s response, which was to back away nervously in bed, and ask a pair of questions that immediately shot Shion’s hopes:

“Who are you? What am I doing here?!”

Shion’s expression immediately dropped. She’d been informed that memory loss was tragically common in the afterlife, but it was easy to brush aside. _She_ remembered everything, and really, how bad could the loss of memory be? It just means she had to make some new ones.

It wasn’t so easy to ignore now that it was her best friend having been clearly deprived of all of her best years of living.

“I’m Murasaki Shion... I...”

She took a moment to breathe.

_What do I even say? We were practically lovers? Nah, we weren’t really that close, but…_

“I...I was your best friend. We were both part of the virtual idol group hololive.”

Aqua cried some more; Shion was evidently quite familiar with her, but she couldn’t say the same.

_I don’t remember any of my mortal life. The girl that Shion was waiting for...am I really the same person? Everything we had together...only she has that, now._

Shion panicked.

“Oh no. Nononononono-you know what, I’m...I’m sorry. I don’t know how to deal with this. I think we need someone more experienced. Give me just a moment.”

She walked out, leaving Aqua alone.

Though, not for very long; Aqua heard Shion shout, and even from outside, she heard the words quite clearly:

“Marine! Aqua’s awake! I kind of need you here!”

And then Shion paused. Another pair of footsteps walked into the cottage.

Shion’s voice rang out again, though much less emphatically. “She...she doesn’t remember us.”

And then, silence.

Another woman entered the bedroom, much slower, and with much a much more deliberate motion to her steps. She looked noticeably older and more mature than Shion (1). She had red hair, tied into long twintails, and dressed like a pirate. She took a seat beside Aqua, and gently offered her hand.

 **Houshou Marine** looked at her former senpai, the now memory-deprived Minato Aqua.

“Aqua-tan...”

Aqua slumped, and fell over back into bed. Just from that one word, just from the way that Marine spoke, it was obvious; the Minato Aqua of the past was someone that these two people truly cared for, like friends or family. And here she was, a girl who bore none of the memories who simply wanted to curl up in bed and never get up again. She cried. She didn’t know who this previous Aqua was, but she cried for the loss of whoever she was. She obviously was a great person. _How do I even speak to them? Will they really want to be friends again?_

Marine looked up to Shion.

“Have you explained where we are and what’s going on to her?”

Shion stumbled, realizing she hadn’t.

“Uh...well, you see...okay, I’ll admit I freaked out when she didn’t remember who I was and I kind of just, uh, thought maybe you’d know what to do better.”

Marine smiled. “It can’t be helped.”

She turned back to Aqua, who, while still wiping her tears, was no longer actively crying.

“Well, I should introduce things properly. Welcome to the afterlife. You’re dead, as are we, and everyone else from our world.”

Aqua froze, hearing the words.

_Wait, what?_

Marine smirked, then decided to go for a more grandiose storytelling voice.

“Welcome to the in-between! The land of those not virtuous enough to enter Heaven, but not sinful enough to get sent to Hell. I got stuck here, alongside Shion-tan, and now...we’re kind of just trying to see where everyone else is. We’re not sure who got sent where, which...well, it makes it harder to know how everyone’s doing.”

Shion shrugged.

“Technically, I did go to school in the underworld to practice my dark magic, but as I was still human, I actually got sent here because I wasn’t bad enough to get sent underground. I’m still in talks with some of the administrators over that; but for the most part, as long as I use my magic while I’m stuck here in the in-between, I’m allowed to use our time here as a coop term; that was the compromise that we reached. From what I know, Choco, Ayame, and Towa returned to their underworld homes, and there’s no way Sora didn’t get sent skyward. Everyone else, well, I don’t know.”

Marine smiled.

“Aqua-tan, I really hope you get to meet your friends once again. I think most of them will be happy to see you. I want to tell you what hololive was; to understand why we want to see our friends once again.”

* * *

Shion looked at Marine and Aqua. She couldn’t believe she was saying this, but she was very grateful to have Marine around; while her _tendencies_ tended to be somewhat annoying, she had the ability to play a very kind older sister role when necessary. As much as she hated to admit it, Shion knew she was too familiar with Aqua - she couldn’t see Aqua as anything other than her best friend that it was okay to annoy for her own amusement (2), and re-wiring that thought was going to take a while.

Marine, on the other hand, could start acting wise beyond her stated age (3), and in the end, this kind of familial comfort was what Aqua needed, more than a trickster friend.

She left the bedroom, alone in thought, to let Marine cheer up Aqua.

In a sense, she was glad for one thing; Shion and Aqua were together when everything went to Hell, and unlike a few of their friends, they didn’t die instantly.

Shion remembered the pain; remembered the way she caught fire, the way that her-

 _Let’s not go there_ , she thought, deciding to not pursue her memories. They weren’t pleasant.

But the one memory that she couldn’t remove was Aqua’s scream. Her last moments, much like Shion’s, were spent on fire, and Aqua’s last moments were spent begging Shion to use her magic to do something, _anything_ , as she met her end.

 _So much for that hope_ , Shion thought; her grip on the mortal realm gave out at more or less the same time Aqua’s did. But, if there was one thing to be happy with, as horrible as it was to see what had become of her best friend, it was that Aqua didn’t remember how painful her last moments were.

It was a silver lining, if one to a terrible situation.

But that was said and done, now. There was nothing to care about as far as the mortal realm was concerned; the end of the world had kind of put a partial reset of things.

Or, in Aqua’s case, a total reset.

It was a new slate to work with; if Aqua couldn’t take her mortal happiness with her, then all they could do is make new memories to replace those she had lost.

* * *

Aqua was entranced with the stories Marine told.

 _This is hololive_ , Marine had said, but hearing Marine recount the adventures of the mortal realm was fascinating. There was an air of mysticism to it; that kind of way that a parent would recount their days of youth to their child.

There was also an air of sheer excitement to it; in the kind of way that a total geek who’s dragging their friend into their personal interest can easily go on because of how much they love what they do.

But, the one thing was clear in all of it: the memories of hololive were truly happy. They were a joyous time where the group had spread smiles on their fans; and they loved what they did, right up to the very end.

It was hard to believe that she was part of this mythical group, but Marine’s storytelling abilities made a convincing narrative. She didn’t believe in herself, but Marine clearly did.

And if Houshou Marine believed this hard that it was going to be alright, then Aqua had to admit, that was a compelling argument to stay positive.

* * *

Shion sat on the patio just outside the door.

 _It’s nice_ , Shion thought, _to be free of the stress_. The in-between was a chaotic place, but it was chaotic in the distribution of its chaos - there were many spots of both peace and order in a world otherwise dominated by souls shaping the world to their own whims.

The shoreline that Marine had selected as the location for her cozy little home (4) was one of those places of peace. At least for now; the nature of the in-between made things inherently unstable, and hard to make permanent; ‘everything is temporary’ was a mantra she’d seen from her last run in the nearby port city - which, while pretty, was the only point of civilization on the island that they had been reincarnated into.

“It’s like a fantasy, isn’t it, Shion-tan.”

It was Marine, accompanied by Aqua.

Shion turned around - she wasn’t expecting Marine to convince Aqua to leave so quickly; from what Shion remembered, Aqua was always by a mile the least social of all of hololive - and not being able to remember her friends definitely wasn’t helping.

It really was like a fantasy; the little cabin, the peaceful nature of their little portion of the world, and even the port city felt like something out of a storybook. For an afterlife that supposedly was for those who _didn’t_ earn a spot up in Heaven, it was pretty comfy. Even with Aqua’s condition, Shion wasn’t sure what more she could ask of the afterlife.

“Yeah. Aqua...how are you feeling?”

Aqua didn’t have any words.

_Right, typical Aqua - she was always terrible at this kind of small talk, even with her memories._

Course correcting mid-sentence, Shion added: “Not that you have to talk if you don’t want to.”

Marine smiled - quite clearly used to the antics of her friends. The awkwardness was familiar; and, while, you know, awkward, it was nice to see that her friends were still the people she remembered them to be.

“Actually, I wanted to talk with the two of you. You see, I’ve...been asking around, and I think it might be time to find a few of our friends. I’ve gotten some tips from foreign travellers, and I think I’ve located the direction we need to go in to find a couple.”

In contrast to Shion, Marine didn’t seem terribly interested in settling down in her afterlife. Completely reversing direction, dying and being sent to the afterlife seemed to energize her; she seemed so _focused_ , though what she was focusing so hard on was a mystery to Shion.

Shion and Aqua both perked up from the mention of their friends - Aqua figured she might as well at least see for herself what her supposed former friends were like, and Shion was admittedly a little excited to be able to say hi to her friends once again.

“You see, I’ve been...negotiating with some of the townsfolk. Surprisingly enough, I might be able to accomplish my dream.”

Both Shion and Aqua were now intrigued, though it was Shion who spoke: “Which dream?”

“I’m going on a voyage to a faraway island to see if I can start getting the gang back together, as I finally got my own little ship to do so with, and if magically staffed, it doesn’t need a large crew. Which, I’m happy with, because I don’t think I’m getting one anytime soon, thanks to this:”

And with that, she pulled out a rolled-up poster. On the poster was a picture of Houshou Marine, and the text below made it fairly clear that it wasn’t promotional.

_Wanted Alive and Unharmed: Dread Pirate Houshou Marine_

The bounty, as well as who had posted it, were worn out - Shion didn’t know who posted it, but Marine clearly had someone very influential after her.

“What did you do?!”

Marine suddenly looked very guilty.

“I _may_ have spent the entire time before _your_ arrival building my reputation as a dread pirate, before losing my ship and getting stranded on this island. It appears that decision may have come back to haunt me. So, yes, in fact, travelling overseas to find my friends is _also_ a way of getting out of the picture for a little while; if I only have you three I’ll have the ability to keep low for a little while longer. And, yes, while it is admittedly somewhat mean to suddenly take you guys overseas when neither of you have any experience with sailing, I also know that you actually want to see our hololive friends again and you’d be willing to sink to my level to do so.”

Shion looked annoyed.

“I’m so angry that you’re right. I would join you, but first I need to ask Aqua-”

“I want to come with you.”

Marine looked surprised. “Are you sure? The ocean can be pretty scary - and I’d come back for you two at some point; as far as I can tell you don’t age at all in the afterlife; that’s why I’m still 17 and sticking with it. You could stay here and live peacefully, if you wanted.”

Aqua smiled nervously. “If I don’t take the opportunity to face my fears now...then I never will. I’ll just stay here, hiding forever. I _need_ to come with you to meet your - my - friends. Even if it’s dangerous, I have to do it. And...I can’t make you take the risk alone. I’m coming with you, even if I’m scared.”

Marine smiled.

“Then welcome to the Houshou Pirates, Aqua-tan, Shion-tan. You’ll be in my care. Get packing; I’d like to leave early if possible!”

_To the ends of this new world, I will set sail. I will find you, my friends..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Not that maturity means very much when Shion’s your baseline.
> 
> (2) Honestly, I understand - You know you’re truly friends with someone when you have the ability to infuriate each other with no actual harm done.
> 
> (3) “17.”
> 
> (4) Or, as Marine sometimes called it, her ‘secret pirate base’.


	4. All Dogs (and Cats) go to Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okayu waits for her best friend before she moves on.
> 
> Korone hasn't figured out she's dead yet.
> 
> Both of them reunite with their old gamer friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the reverse of my usual convention, as Japanese is the dominant language, I’m swapping the language quotes, so “Standard” quotation marks are used for characters speaking Japanese and 「Special」 quotation marks are used for English.
> 
> Also, new longest chapter! Wasn’t expecting it to go this long, but honestly I am having a lot of fun writing this, which is why so far I’m operating a 2:1 chapters-posted ratio between this and time shenanigans. It helps that I can make things up as I go along in this fic a LOT more easily, whereas Weird Time Shenanigans runs the risk of time paradox if I do that.
> 
> At least for now, the chapter order is: Heaven → Hell → In-Between, though in a cycle or two I’ll likely break it up (as the Heaven folks don’t have all that much they can do right now). Next Hell chapter is likely to be really long, as the storyboard for it is rather excessive - likely only one new character shows up, but let's just say she makes quite an entrance.
> 
> There's also, starting now, going to be a few cameos from outside of hololive in this fic. I'll link the channels in the end note, alongside their group affiliation.

**Nekomata Okayu** was waiting.

She actually saw Fubuki go past her - though, surprisingly enough, Fubuki didn’t see her back. She was actually ahead of some of her friends, from what she could tell; though, most of them were in different lines, so she hadn’t had the luck of actually meeting face-to-face with any of them while waiting.

It was because of this that Okayu decided to forfeit her position in line, letting most other souls pass by on their way to one of the administrative buildings that would decide their afterlife destination. She wasn’t particularly special; why should she go before any of them?

She wasn’t entirely sure how she died; her memory turned up a blank spot on that. Her last memories were definitely of life, but on the other hand, this definitely wasn’t the mortal realm, so clearly _something_ happened to the world. She just wasn’t sure what, aside from the fact that it was clearly some sort of apocalypse, judging by the literal millions of souls she’d watch pass by her.

She had a specific reason for waiting.

One downside to some of the afterlife waiting places is that they didn’t have any way of telling time. For all Okayu knew, she might have been here for a few hours, days, or maybe it had somehow secretly been years without her knowing. It wouldn’t surprise her; she wasn’t _that_ careful about her sense of time.

Not that the bar for time sensitivity was high, given who she was waiting for.

The crowd had somewhat thinned out; while it was still large, she could tell that they were actually working through the backlog at what, relative to pre-apocalypse pace, was impossibly fast; it seemed like there was probably some spatial-temporal shenanigans going on here to keep the pace going faster than possible.

She’d been waiting for an uncertain but long enough time when she finally spotted the reason she’d voluntarily given up her space in line earlier.

* * *

**Inugami Korone** wasn’t sure what the line was for.

Her memory was kind of fuzzy; she was aware that at some point some chunk of her memories had to have gone missing; it was the only way to explain how she got here, yet had no idea how she had gotten here.

From the looks of it, there were a lot of other people here, and probability had decided to shuffle her pretty far back. Her friends must’ve been ahead of her.

Which was why she was surprised when she heard a distinctive sound that was fairly unique to one of her hololive gen-mates and also arguably her best friend: “Mogu mogu.”

Korone turned around to the only person who could’ve made that sound. And then, like an excited puppy (1), leaped and hugged Okayu in a tackle motion.

“Okayu!”

“Koro-san!”

Okayu opened her arms and caught Korone gracefully. While doing so, Okayu quickly checked her fingers. Moving them about, she confirmed that she still had all of them. Sure, Korone would only joke about it and wouldn’t actually steal people’s fingers, but it never hurt to be sure.

Neither Okayu and Korone were sure how long they’d been sitting there, but Okayu decided that enough time had passed; she had been waiting for long enough.

* * *

The paperwork, as always, was boring as always.

Amane Kanata maintained her dead-inside look serving the papers between various people; she barely said a word to either Okayu or Korone, aside from the usual motions to fill out the paperwork as it was presented.

She motioned to the two of them, directing them to follow her to the angelic courtroom.

The courtroom was the same as ever; and seated at the judge’s position was Archangel Kurumi.

On one side was Amane Kanata, and on the other was a girl, dressed mostly in violet and black, with hair that was a combination of pale blue and green. The girl's name was **Froot** (and also known as Apricot), and she was serving the administration as a temporary work shift from the underworld. 

“I see we have a case of two souls whose destinies are intertwined enough to arrive together in the same courtroom. Although it is admirable, and, in mortal terms, adorable, I, by statute, have to hand down the verdicts separately. As you, Nekomata-san, specifically deferred your trial, I will hand down my verdict to Inugami-san first.”

She brought her gavel down, letting the sound of the impact ring out into the courtroom.

“I am Kurumi, the Absolute Angel. We are now in session for the trial of Inugami Korone. Amane-san, please submit Inugami-san’s files. Apricot-san, please submit the mortal record.”

Both sides of the courtroom walked up the bench, submitting a pair of forms. Kurumi read the papers carefully, and then paused.

“Inugami-san, are you aware of why you are here?”

Korone smiled and gave an enthusiastic “Nope!”

Kurumi paused. In the space she had left in the conversation, Froot, the lich, spoke.

「So, basically, you died, and now we’re busy figuring out where we throw your soul. Due to short-staffing issues, they’re calling a lot of underworlders to do a shift here.」

The statement mostly flew over Korone’s head, because it was delivered in English, rather than in Japanese. Korone understood enough, however, to get the gist of it; and, actually decided that she wanted to thank her for the information.

「Oh, I’m die. Thank you forever.」

Kurumi sighed.

「Seriously, they paired me with a temporary clerk who _speaks the wrong language for the defendant?_ What are the powers above doing? At least I picked it up because I’ve been here for tens of thousands of years, but _seriously._ Not that it’s entirely your fault, Apricot; the powers above are handling the backlog about as well as the rest of the angels are. It turns out that organization isn’t much of a virtue around here.」

She turned to Korone.

“Anyways, to clarify in a language you understand better: we are here because you have passed on. You have died, and we are here to judge you based on your mortal actions in life, to sentence you to the afterlife fit for your soul. You did not appear to be aware of the fact that you have actually passed on.”

Korone realized that Kurumi was right; she hadn’t actually realized she was dead until she entered the trial. It did explain the gap in her memory, which was admittedly nice to know. Kurumi seemed a bit too no-nonsense to joke back to, so she let her keep going.

“As for the mortal record, well, I will run through this quickly. Honestly, I would just send you to Heaven and not double-check, but the last time I did that, I got an earful from the upper angels about that, even though I was right - as if my judgements have ever been incorrect; I would think I have been doing this for long enough to know the weight of one’s karma. That would be the trial of Shirakami Fubuki, whom I think you are quite familiar with.”

Korone jumped up from the defendant’s seat excitedly. If she was dead, then a Heaven with her friends was the next best thing she could ask for. There was only the question of whether or not she was good enough. She decided to go the direct route.

“Was I a good dog?”

Kurumi’s face remained impassive, looking at Korone’s files without blinking. Without even looking at Korone, she answered:

“I suppose you’re hoping I finish that with, ‘No, I hear you were the best’, but unfortunately, I am not known for my sense of humor, and I am not going to defile the process; we’re doing things by the book this time. Not that it matters, you have a relatively clean bill of karma; you were an absolute joy who mostly brought happiness to both your fans and your friends. To run down your bill of karma very quickly: you always showed respect and humility to others, you were comfortable and accepting of your position in life, you generally were peaceful and never lashed out at your friends or anyone else, even with how successful you were you always took the time to appreciate those you surpassed on the way up, you’re ridiculously hard-working, you managed to keep looking forward no matter what the world around you looked like, and your interpersonal relationships were, as I think it would be put less formal but more mortal terms, ‘precious’, and otherwise were wholesome, which is everything we are looking for in entrants to heaven.”

She paused in that way that, if she were human, there would be a deep breath, before continuing the speech:

“Your only red marks are that you were somewhat hyperactive - which we do not qualify against you, and you are hardly the worst for that - and your rather strange obsession with the whole ‘yubi yubi’ thing, which honestly, is strange, but you did not end up actually _stealing_ anyone’s fingers over that, so it ends up all good.”

She paused once again, but this time for a more formal pause as raised the gavel.

“I think that concludes the rundown of your mortal record and bill of karma, so I think it should be safe to hand down a verdict. Inugami Korone, you are hereby invited to Heaven. Trial is no longer in session.”

The door to heaven opened as Kurumi brought the gavel down with a resonant _thwack!_

Okayu smiled. Korone deserved this. Now that trial was no longer in session, she could now ask a question informally:

“So, uh, if our souls are entwined or something like that, does that mean I get to freely tag along?”

Kurumi, face neutral, replied as such: “It does not. Although you are allowed to bear witness to the trial together, by statute your verdicts must be handed down separately - however, while you are evidently a very different soul from your friend, your bill of karma is most likely very similar; I do not think I will be wrong calling your entrance to heaven in advance. I’m not known for being nice; so if I’m saying this, you can be pretty safe in assuming you’re not going to the fires below.”

“Well, okay then.”

Korone waved goodbye to Okaru and Kurumi, and then walked through the doors.

Kurumi looked back to Okayu. “And now, for you.”

Okayu replied in her usual calm. “Alright.”

Kurumi brought the gavel down once again.

"We are now in session for the trial of Nekomata Okayu."

* * *

Korone jumped into a cloud, and looked around; the massive array of clouds, gravity-defying islands, and floating buildings that went on seemingly endlessly both up and around leaving Korone speechless.

Though, not for very long. According to the angel judge, Fubuki got here before she did, and finding her was probably the best thing to do for now.

Her sensitive dog ears being well-trained, she somehow heard the sound of a fox crawling on a cloud below her, despite the fact that’s basically entirely silent. She looked down, and then stuck a hand through the cloud. Her hand ran into another limb, and upon making contact, she clenched her fingers and pulled her arm upwards.

Yanking Fubuki up through and then onto the cloud, Korone smiled and embraced one of her best friends.

“Fubuki-chan!”

“Korone-chan!”

Fubuki laughed, not in the funny way, but in a truly joyous and happy manner; another friend had joined the heavenly realm with her, making it just that little bit less lonely.

“Wait, Fubuki-chan, let go! Okayu’s right behind me!”

And with that, Fubuki let Korone go, if only for her own amusement.

* * *

Okayu walked out through exactly the same door Korone had entered.

She didn’t even have time to appreciate the scenery before Korone immediately tackled her with a hug, knocking her right into the cloud they were standing on. The cloud was fluffy; it was almost like getting tackle-hugged into a bed.

_I really should’ve expected this._

She heard laughter, and she knew exactly who it was - it belonged to none other than to one Shirakami Fubuki.

Korone paused. Her hearing was better than Okayu’s, if only because of the nature of her dog ears, and it was that particular pause that meant she heard something Okayu didn’t.

Korone leapt upwards. The sound in question was made at a distance such that only her ears picked it out, but once she heard it, her mind immediately rushed to fill the gap.

It was Ookami Mio’s laughter.

Korone made the announcement as soon as she noticed: “Mio-chan’s here!”

Fubuki laughed - Mio got here before she did, after all, so she knew this already.

And then, she stopped as she realized something.

Korone and Okayu took notice quickly, Okayu speaking first.

“Is something wrong, Fubuki-chan?”

Fubuki continued to be _Me, Korone, Okayu, Mio…_

With an excited cheer, Fubuki announced, with much joy. “We have all of the gamers! Korone, Okayu, you’re here, and Mio got here before I did!”

Korone and Okayu both had their expressions brighten - it was true; all of the hololive gamers made it to Heaven; they just had to find Mio.

She turned around, and waved to Mio, who had taken a position on a nearby floating island. Mio proceeded to wave back at her friend.

“Alright, so next up, I’m gonna show you how to fly!”

Korone and Okayu looked at each other, then back to Fubuki.

“Well, we’ll learn together! Bring out your wings!”

Fubuki conjured her light blue ethereal wings.

“Oh, as a warning, you might have some problems controlling this at first, so make sure you jump in the right direction. We’re just heading over to Mio-chan over there.”

* * *

As it turns out, Fubuki had not gotten better at flying, and Korone, as a complete beginner, extending her yellow wings, proceeded to follow Fubuki into crash landing in Mio’s direction. All three of them laughed; it was fun, even if it was at their expense, to just childishly fly straight into the ground because they hadn’t figured out how to control their flight yet.

Korone spoke first after crashing. “Wait, where’s Okayu? Did we just leave her behind?”

In contrast to the rest of the gamers, Okayu floated in slowly, far behind the rest of them, bumping into the ground without the crash that the rest of them were known for. Her wings glowed purple; and she seemed to be fairly calm about the whole ordeal.

Fubuki, Korone, and Mio just looked at each other, confused.

Mio asked the obvious question: “How do you control it? We all just kind of leap around and crash.”

Okayu shrugged.

“Honestly, I’m not good at this, I’m just flying slowly. At your speed, that landing would’ve been a crash.”

Mio just looked sheepishly at the ground. The idea of going slowly did make sense, and yet somehow neither her nor Fubuki thought of it.

Fubuki on the other hand, just moved on, her mind as fast as ever.

“Oh, right, we should go meet Sora-senpai! She’s just around here; she has a wonderfully cozy little cottage...which probably isn’t a good space for all of us to live in, but we’ll figure it out.”

None of them realized that they were being watched.

* * *

Tokino Sora looked at her newly arrived hololive kouhais. It was wonderful to see that the gamers had managed to reunite in Heaven; though now that they were coming over to her place she needed to make sure that her and AZKi were ready for guests; the little cabin was a space for two, and she was about to have four people join her.

It made Sora thankful that part of the Heaven package was eternal daytime and not having a biological _need_ to actually sleep, as the place only had three beds; and, yes, while sleep was no longer required, honestly going to bed just felt really nice sometimes. Then again, Korone and Fubuki probably would go all-in on the whole not-needing-sleep thing; the two of them were always so very dedicated to what they did back in life.

_I really should rebuild this place if we’re all going to be living here._

Construction in Heaven was remarkably easy; mostly because virtually everything was powered by belief; so, in effect, she could just magically re-conjure sections of the house at-will as she wanted if she focused hard enough on doing so. The only restriction was that you had to limit yourself to your own residence; Heaven had a pretty strict no-messing-with-others rule; though arguably the selection of those who made it into the heavenly realm meant that it practically never had to be enforced. It also helped that the realm was more-or-less infinite; there was always more space in the heavenly realm for people to move into.

It was the old axiom of ‘my house, my rules’, played to a literally spiritual fault.

Sora looked outside; the four were close when suddenly they stopped.

Sora heard Mio shout.

“Subaru’s here!”

Sora ran outside as soon as she heard that. She was expecting to see another door and grand appearance, but that wasn’t what it was.

No, it was a surprise: a newcomer, ethereal yellow wings behind her, was gracefully flying up to their level; the arc was a graceful magically assisted leap through the air that had a trajectory lined up with Sora’s doorstep.

 **Oozora Subaru** landed in front of the gamers, much to their shock. Of all the people to master flying, most of them assumed that Subaru would only add to the expanding list of people that made a mess of it.

Fubuki was the first to comment on it: “How did you do that? We just crash all of the time!”

Subaru laughed. “They dropped me couple of kilometers from you guys, so I either had to learn or I couldn't see you guys! I was so confused over why I couldn’t find you!”

Sora bowed to the surprisingly graceful Subaru as the latter dismissed her wings.

“As awkward as it is to ask it so soon, could perhaps you teach us how you did this? I’d think it would be for the best if we all learned how to get around here.”

Subaru smiled while pacing around the group in a little bout of hyperactivity. “The trick is mostly to focus on where you’re flying, not on the fact that you’re crashing; if you think you’re gonna crash, that’s how you crash. I don’t...really get it myself? I just kind of leap around while using my wing magic and I got good at aiming. You’re smart, you’ll probably figure it out during our flying sessions.”

Korone casually added: “Oh, I get it. You’re part bird. Of course you’re the best at it!”

“OMAEEE!”

They all laughed in response to that; this was an occasion for joy; and for Fubuki especially, who had managed to get her entire hololive gamer circle back together, the ol’ FAMS-

And suddenly, the smile stopped, realizing that something was missing. Everyone could argue otherwise, but they all knew it. Even with everyone who got here, there was one member from the old group missing, a member that Fubuki herself saw on her way up: Nakiri Ayame, who was one of the hololive members bound to the underworld.

This would be the point where most people would probably take a moment to mourn the fact that the rules had permanently separated them from their friends, as demons were never allowed to set foot in Heaven. And that was to say nothing of the rest of them.

Shirakami Fubuki was not most people.

 _It’s true,_ Fubuki thought, _that the rules say Ayame’s not allowed up here in Heaven. But she wasn’t allowed in the mortal realm and the rules were broken to allow her to join us back then. Why stop now?_

Fubuki looked to Sora.

“Sora-senpai...you want to see them, too.”

Sora couldn’t deny it - between her, AZKi, and the five who had just joined her, already her afterlife felt so much more like home. And now that she had seen how happy just the seven of them were together, she knew it wouldn’t feel complete until the group was together, but it also didn’t seem possible - exactly how were they ever going to convince the high angels to let multiple demons into Heaven just because they were friends?

Sora admitted it: “Yeah. I do. I really do. I want to see all of them again. I just...I don’t know how we could do that.”

It was Subaru who decided to simply cut the proverbial knot: “Um, can we just add her back on Discord?”

Sora pulled out her phone, by reflex - and then only _after_ pulling it out did she realize that, in fact, she still _had_ her phone with her; which was weird, she could’ve sworn she didn’t take it with her when she ran out - in fact, she didn’t even remember having it at all.

She checked her phone, only to get a message that informed them things might be delayed a little:

_You do not have access to cross-realm VirtueNet. If you are an archangel or are otherwise in a position that should have full network access, please contact your nearest angelic network administrator to elevate your permission._

“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to get around this. We’re stuck here for now.”

Fubuki looked at it slightly differently.

“Seven friends today. The rest of them tomorrow.”

Subaru pointed out a slight hitch with that particular phrasing:

“Um, there’s no day/night cycle up in Heaven.”

Fubuki smiled. “Then tomorrow is whenever we make it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) I’m not apologizing for that particular analogy.
> 
> Poor Archangel Kurumi. That’s what you get for being an incredibly no-nonsense character in a nonsensical story. On the other hand, I’d recommend not feeling too bad for her; let’s just say that she takes her duties seriously, and that’s going to result in a couple of really not fun trial sessions, particularly for this fic’s final trial scene, which will be quite a few chapters from now (and which you can probably guess who’s going to be in the defendant’s seat for that one).
> 
> Froot a.k.a. Apricot (VShojo):  
> Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/apricot  
> Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ApricottheLichVS


	5. The Yakusa Moves Underground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain dragon gets sent to realm of demons for her actions.
> 
> The poor demons didn't know what hit them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I knew, starting this chapter, that it was going to be the longest yet. There’s a LOT of things that happen. Features both some comedy, action, and possibly the first actually kind of shipped pair in this story, though most likely not the last.
> 
> Features a cameo from VTuber group HoneyStrap.
> 
> I think this will be the chapter where people stop feeling sympathy for Archangel Kurumi, and for the angels as a species in general.

The Underworld house, as it was informally called, was mostly on an off day.

Choco was out, leaving Mel, Ayame, and Towa to their own devices.

Towa spoke out into the mostly quiet room.

“Quiet day, huh? I wonder what’s going on below.”

She should’ve known better than to say that out loud, as there was a loud knock on the door. Ayame got up to answer the door.

On the other side was a demon girl with silver-ish hair. Her name was Suou Patra, and she looked exasperated.

“Ayame! Thank the devil you’re here. We need your help down in mid!”

Ayame was mostly confused. She tilted her head in a thinking motion.

“Some new soul showed up, and she’s so rowdy that most of the demons can’t keep up with her! You’re the only one we know who can defeat her!”

 _That_ was unusual. For the most part, the demons liked to fight, and generally the souls of former mortals were no match for demons - if there was an arena fight between former mortals and demons, it was for the entertainment value of watching the poor souls get stomped.

For a former mortal to turn the tables, well, it was rare, but it did happen on occasion.

For them to call Nakiri Ayame down on them? That was drastic. But she wasn’t one to ignore summons, and she was going to see what was up. She knew she was out of practice; despite Patra’s confidence, victory was not certain. But apparently, they considered Ayame their best shot.

“Alright, fine. Hey, Mel, Towa, wanna come down and watch?”

Both Mel and Towa replied in the affirmative.

* * *

The arena was one of the most prominent features of the mid-underworld. If one took the normal paths downwards, it would be the first part of the middle region one would see, and it was a statement to the kind of people the demons were. Rowdy and fairly rough-playing, but generally also creatures of entertainment. There was a fight going on, and generally by the noises of the demons, it was turning into a one-sided battle, and not in favour of the home team.

Ayame sighed. It’d been a long time since she’d been called for an arena fight, and she wasn’t particularly interested in going back; but if she had to, she would fight.

At least until Ayame saw who the challenger was, looking from above the arena. It was a girl with orange hair, horns, and a purple dragon tail.

A flash of light shined from the arena as **Kiryu Coco** ignited a blast of fire. It ignited a brilliant shade of bluish-white, and it was clear whichever demon she fired it at had probably lost the fight very hard as the fireball connected and caused a small explosion.

Suou Patra sighed. She had watched this exact scenario happen before in the arena.

Ayame had to admit, she was nervous; she wasn’t sure she could win, and fighting one of her friends made it more likely that she wouldn’t be able to win that battle. Drawing her swords might be harder; if she hesitated and Coco didn’t, that was her loss. That was a flaw all of them shared.

Which was why it surprised her when Towa spoke.

“Ayame, stand down. I volunteer to fight Kiryu Coco in her place.”

Mel was shocked. “Towa? Really? Aren’t you too much of an angel?”

Towa glared at Mel. “I’m a devil. I have tricks up my sleeve that you demons don’t.”

* * *

Kiryu Coco stood victorious over her demonic opponent.

Most of them weren’t very hard; which was apparently surprising, as most former mortals mostly got utterly stomped when attempting to fight demons - in fact, they often gave the demons deliberate disadvantages, usually being outnumbered, to make the fight even slightly even.

And here Coco was, turning the tables on them.

_I wonder if eventually they’ll start tag-teaming me to make the fight even._

The thought was funny; and it would honestly be the ultimate blow to the demons’ pride.

The announcer made the call. “A special opponent wishes to fight.”

Kiryu Coco, perhaps being a little too confident, replied with a confident reply of “Well, bring ‘em on!”

The gates opened.

Tokoyami Towa stepped into the ring.

Coco paused. “What? Towa-sama? What are you doing here?”

“Stopping you, obviously. Ayame was supposed to be your opponent, but I can do one better: I’ll beat you without even fighting.”

With that, she raised her hands. A puff of smoke emerged, and in one hand she held a piece of paper, and another, a pen.

“Look, I know you don’t actually want to fight me. We were good friends, and if we go all out, we’ll both just regret it. So, here’s the deal: you let me take this victory without fighting, and I’ll see if I can get you out of the arena so you can hang out with the rest of the underworld gang. Just sign right here, and we’ll move you from constantly fighting probably to somewhere with unpleasant weather.”

Coco’s eyes widened. It was one hell of a gambit.

Then she grinned, then laughed.

“If you were any other devil, Towa, I’d take that offer. But, um, it’s you. You’re only doing this because you know you can’t actually win.”

“I was an archdevil for a little bit. I was stripped of that title because they didn’t believe in how I wanted to run things. My spiritual power exceeds yours, _Kaichou._ ”

The taunt would almost work if Towa hadn’t sounded nervous.

Coco taunted back. “The thing is, you don’t have it in you to fight a former mortal friend, even if you’re supposed to. You’re simply too much of an _angel,_ Towa-sama.”

Towa dropped the contract and pen.

Everyone froze. Coco with way too much of a grin, Towa with a silent expression that looked like she wanted to kill somebody, and the audience at the insult that Coco had just thrown in public.

Towa finally snapped.

“I...am...”

She conjured her pitchfork, an entirely black weapon fitting of her species as devil.

“NOT!”

She pointed it at Coco.

“AN!”

The bolt lit up red for a split second.

“ANGEL!”

She fired a bolt of red lightning from the pitchfork, hitting Coco head-on and sending her crashing into the wall, which cracked under the force of the impact, going up in a cloud of dust.

The announcer for the battle enthusiastically announced the beginning of the duel: “ **The battle is on!** ”

* * *

Meanwhile, in the stands, Ayame and Mel look at each other, extremely worried. Patra looked at them, mostly confused at their reactions.

“What are you looking so worried about?”

Mel replied, shocked at the scene. “Towa is acting like a _Devil._ ”

* * *

Meanwhile, Towa was walking up to the impact zone slowly, legs shaking and doing her absolute best not to cry.

_Did I really...just strike one of my best friends...over my stupid devil pride? Did I just throw away an entire mortal life’s friendship over this? Please...please be alright._

Only to find that Coco wasn’t there.

She looked to the sides.

“Where could she have gone?”

And then she looked up, only to see Coco’s foot immediately in front of her face.

Towa, with only a split second to react, invoked her magic and dashed out of the way, in a lightning-like motion, barely getting out of the way of Coco’s strike.

Kiryu Coco struck the ground, leaving an imprint on the stone where her foot connected, she turned to Towa’s new position, before replying: “Nice flash step you’ve got there.”

Towa breathed heavily. The flash step, while a powerful magical technique, was physically exhausting to execute due to the sheer amount of movement, and if the battle turned into an attrition over that, Towa knew it wouldn’t last.

Coco seemed to realize this, as she leaped forward aggressively, fist pointed towards Towa; lost in thought, Towa had to flash step again to keep up with the strike. Time seemed to slow down between strikes; this battle was a lot more even than Towa was hoping it would be; hoping for a decisive hit, Towa flash stepped yet again time to strike her foot into Coco’s body before Coco could fully recover from the attempted hit. Coco seemed to roll-over in the air to land perfectly on her feet, who then responded by a flash of light and a bluish-white fiery projectile shot straight at Towa, who then flash stepped one last time to escape the blast.

Towa stood her ground opposite Coco, while breathing heavily from the physical exhaustion of keeping up with the incredibly fast pace of combat.

She spoke quietly to herself. “Is it possible we can still be friends after this…?”

Coco grinned. “We’re down in the underworld. I’m just fitting in - maybe it’s just me, but it seems like this is what friends do down here?”

Towa smiled, “You’re right, but I still don’t intend to lose.” She raised her hand, and shouted: “ _Devil’s Barrier!_ ”

On cue, a magical barrier, translucent and red in colour, surrounded Coco.

Towa smiled in an evil manner; the battle was now hers to win. The barrier was a versatile spell, and even if Coco tried to escape, she could channel more magic to keep the barrier up. More importantly, she could use her magic through it, while Coco couldn’t. A single spell would be the decisive blow she needed to down Coco; and now she couldn’t dodge, as long as the barrier held. It wasn’t designed to handle that much physical load; but it wasn’t supposed to. It just needed to buy time.

Towa started charging her pitchfork for another lightning blast; this one more powerful than the one at the start of the match. It would be the knockout blow, if it fully connected.

Coco, in response, slammed her foot into the barrier as hard as possible. The barrier, not being designed to handle that much physical strength, immediately cracked, though it didn’t shatter.

Towa panicked, and did the only thing she could think of - use her magic to reform the barrier and keep it in once piece. She dropped the pitchfork doing so, and with it, the spell on it fizzled.

She picked it up, and started charging again.

Coco taunted Towa: “Can’t keep up with this, can you? You can’t keep this barrier up while charging this spell, or I’ll break out.” She punched the barrier, causing another crack.

Towa stared at Coco. “Doesn’t need to hold for all that long.”

The spell charged.

“Diablo’s Thunder!”

At the moment the spell fired, the barrier broke.

A large arc of red lightning connected with where Coco was standing, striking the ground and rendering the area into a large cloud of dust.

Towa wasn’t falling for it this time. She looked directly up; Coco would not perform the same game as the first time.

And she spotted Coco, floating in the air, with her wings unfurled.

Towa only realized the unfairness of the situation now that it was in front of her.

_Wait, she can conjure those?! I thought her human form didn’t...have…_

From her vantage point in the sky, a little white light started glowing.

Towa knew what followed next.

_This is it. If I can outlast it, I win - Coco isn’t that spiritually powerful, so this has to be her last attempt to play with fire. If I can’t, then I’m finished._

A stream of concentrated fire fired downwards from Coco. It wasn’t the bluish-white that represented the explosive blast; while it burned with a brilliant intensity, this was meant to operate more continuously.

Towa raised her hands.

“Devil’s Barrier!”

The technique was powerful because it could be used offensively to restrain an opponent, but it worked just as well defensively - and it was better suited for magical attacks than physical ones. This time, rather than surrounding Coco, the barrier surrounded Towa.

She didn’t need to overpower Coco’s fire. She just needed to outlast it.

The beam connected with the barrier.

_Damn! It’s stronger than I thought!_

Towa strained her magic, putting everything into the barrier.

The barrier cracked under the pressure.

“Come on, don’t fail me here!”

And then, it stopped, right as the barrier shattered. Towa fell to her knees, exhausted beyond belief.

It was over. She had won...right?

Coco cheerfully floated down to the ground while Towa slowly got up, using her pitchfork for support.

She grinned, and taunted Coco.

“You’re out of fire. I’ve...I’ve won.”

“You’re out of magic, too. And, the thing is, if we’re both completely out of energy, then all we can really do is throw our physical bodies at each other. And at that point, you are a little _angel_ who can barely throw a punch without magical assistance…”

Coco grinned _way_ too smugly.

“And meanwhile, I am a dragon.”

Towa looked at Coco, then to the ground, then back to Coco.

It was over. Towa lost and she knew it.

Her body, physically entirely spent, fell over, taking a new position of lying on the ground as she lost consciousness.

* * *

Towa woke up.

She was back at the underworld house, lying on the couch.

Everyone was back, and now there was a new occupant in the dwelling; the dragon that had just demolished her and the pride of devilkind in combat.

Not that Towa could really think about it at the moment, as most of her muscles were in a fair amount of pain.

“Ugh...remind me _never_ to do that again.”

She looked around the room, spotting Coco.

“Oh, hey...Coco, are you alright?”

The other three members there laughed. Towa had fought to the point of losing consciousness, and the first thing she did was ask if her opponent was alright, before worrying about herself.

Coco tilted her head in a confused motion.

“Yeah, I think I’m doing fine. I’ll need a while to recover after that one; though, really, Towa, you should be more selfish if you want to be a devil.”

Ayame replied casually to the conversation. “If you’re wondering how you got here, Coco literally carried you out of the arena, and then we just kind of...uh, booked it together. That match caused a _lot_ of commotion - a former mortal beating a _devil_ is practically entirely unheard of, even if said mortal was a dragon. Most of the demons called that match the fight of the millennium, and while I’m not really into that kind of thing, I can see why; the two of you went really all-out there.”

Coco replied next, equally casually. “As for why I didn’t take the contract, Towa, well...you’re too much of an angel. You were going to help me book it regardless.”

Towa had to admit, that was a compelling argument. Coco was a friend; she would help her move to the more pleasant upper underworld without questions asked.

And, even if she was only a former archdevil and not a present one, as a devil, she was entirely allowed to play favourites; she actually liked Coco, and as crazy as she could be, she wasn’t that evil.

Which lead to the obvious question:

“Wait, what exactly did you get thrown into Hell for? You’re many things, but outright evil I wouldn’t say is one of them.”

Coco sighed.

“I have no regrets, but...”

* * *

_A few hours earlier…_

Kiryu Coco stood in front of the court.

“I am Kurumi, the Absolute Angel. We are now in session for the trial of Kiryu Coco. Amane-san, please submit Kiryu-san’s files. Ririsya-san, please submit the mortal record.”

Kiryu Coco waited. She didn’t like the paperwork, and she liked even less that Kanata clearly hated every single part of this job; she was clearly being forced to do this.

But she supposed she should just wait. It was tempting to go and say something really stupid, but this also really did not seem like a good time to do so.

Kurumi gave the first remark. Coco was mostly bored.

“Well, you’re remarkably honest. Your written files and your mortal record are a 1:1 match, except for some childhood shenanigans that, at over three thousand years old, you could not be expected to remember.

“Otherwise, let’s see, going down your bill of karma…

“You absolutely played a rather arrogant character, but honestly, behind that, you were fairly humble - something I’ve noticed is common in most of your friends; you were generally grateful for the things you had in life. That’s good.

“You were also, from what I’m reading, fairly nice in most respects - despite the fact that, from what I’m reading, you ran a yakuza group, you weren’t actually violent, and you were also very hard working in life, always showing a conviction for what you did. That dedication is also something looked highly upon. Honestly, you have a surprisingly clean record so far.

“Next, we...oh, dear. This isn’t good.”

Coco looked up.

“You corrupted an angel. _That_ runs your karma into the red; crimes committed involving angels are held in serious regard up here.”

“Corrupted? When was this?”

“During your time on Earth. You were roommates with one ‘Amane Kanata’, and, well, the angelic realm frowns upon your interactions. You are considered a bad influence on the angel.”

Coco decided that she had heard enough. “If my living with her was bad for her as an angel, then why don’t you ask her for her opinion of me?”

Kanata flinched.

Kurumi noticed. “In fact, that’s the easiest way to display the case for what it is. Amane Kanata, you are no longer considered objectively able to serve in the trial as one of the operators, so you are to be removed from your post in this trial immediately; Amane-san, please testify to your interactions with Kiryu-san.”

Coco was annoyed, but it made sense. Besides, Kanata would vouch for her - for all of their teasing each other and not caring jokes, Kanata wouldn’t throw her into Hell.

She wouldn’t, right?

Coco suddenly got nervous. The angels were, from what little she’d seen so far, incredibly hierarchical, and they might somehow force Kanata to testify against her. It would be unbelievably cruel; and it would mean that she would be sent to Hell for certain.

Amane Kanata started speaking.

“Well...when I moved in with her, it was, like...I didn’t really know what to expect? For the most part, the heavenly realm was the only place I’d been, so when she made the offer, I didn’t really know what I was looking for, either.”

Coco was glad to see Kanata smiling.

“And it was fun! The mortal world had so many sights and sounds that made it so different from Heaven! It made me understand so much about all of this human culture that we’re supposed to guide; I wanted to stay down there for as long as the world existed.”

She paused.

“Which I guess I did. And then...honestly, Coco was the best roommate for me. We were just… comfy, really. I didn’t need to watch myself around her. I could relax and just do what I loved. We went out for dinner, and she always cared for me then, as well. She allowed me to sleep in her bed, and it was comfy. I was happy at the time to share a set of rings with her. If I’m being forced to admit it in this court...then I would say I love her.”

Coco grinned, and also blushed. Kanata had just completely vouched for her character. She was safe-

“That is enough, Amane-san. Kiryu-san, I hope you realize that her testimony, while in your defense, just utterly sank your case.”

“Excuse me?”

“Angels, in general, are held to a higher standard of behavior than humans are. As our species is generally known for being enlightened, we are supposed to hold ourselves above mortal desires, such as those for food and sleep - you might not know this, but angels, being mostly spiritual beings, do not have a biological need for either of those. The fact is, Amane-san has confessed that it was you who, in a sense, corrupted her; love between angel and mortal is strictly forbidden. We are meant to be looked up to by mortals, not be equal-footed partners.

“This is admittedly a little difficult to judge, because Amane-san’s actions are not your own, and similarly, as we hold mortals to lower standards, most of your mortal desires would not send you down into the fires below.

“But it was the last line of Amane-san’s testimony that was the issue. You made her fall in love with her; and you even put a ring on her, though admittedly that was indulging her own desires. 

“You can claim ignorance of Amane-san’s affection, if you wish. You can say there was truly no love from your end of the relationship, and that the fault entirely lays with Amane-san, and that you had no part in the relationship built in your shared home.

“If you can admit this to the court, then you will not be considered at fault.”

Kiryu Coco glared at Kurumi with the deadliest look she had ever given. She could betray Kanata, and get her ticket free. Or she could stay loyal to her best friend - possibly beyond ‘friend’ - and get sent into the underworld for her loyalty.

_This is stupid, the whole thing is stupid, you know what-_

It wasn’t a choice, as only one option was even considered; Coco went all in on the direction she was going, and it was directly downwards.

“If you guys are all enlightened and Heaven’s so much better than the mortal realm, then _why did Kanatan want to leave it so badly?_ She admitted that she never wanted to go back, and clearly she isn’t enjoying it now, so maybe _you guys_ should think about what you’re doing!”

Kurumi replied impassively. “Her servitude to the court is _her_ punishment for falling in love with the living in the mortal realm; she is serving at my discretion. She is to remain in service to us more-or-less indefinitely; though eventually the term will expire - we’re still waiting on a very specific case, and it’s a high-profile case that will most likely be my last.”

She paused, in a space where a breath would be if she were human.

“Also, word of advice if and when you get a retrial: _don’t talk back to the one who is deciding your fate._ It only runs you deeper into the red, which is why you’re now getting sent to the mid-underworld rather than upper. If you wish to pick fights with spiritually-empowered beings, then maybe the demons will be good company.”

She raised the gavel. “The court finds Kiryu Coco guilty. You are hereby sentenced to the underworld. Trial is no longer in session.”

Coco looked at Kanata, who just wore a solemn, serious expression on her face, mouthing a nearly silent “I’m sorry.” in Coco’s direction.

Coco looked back, and smiled toward her friend.

“It’s worth it, Kana-tan.”

Kurumi brought the gavel down.

The floor disappeared from underneath Coco’s feet. Gravity took over as Coco fell into the abyss.

* * *

_Back in the present…_

“And when I woke up, I was in the city of demons, who took me to the arena. Then, well, I started winning the fights, which I’m starting to think I wasn’t supposed to.”

Ayame laughed at the remark.

“Yeah, the angels’ attitude is that if you are going to do bad things to angels, then you can try doing bad things to demons, as they don’t generally care as much if they get hurt; I don’t think any of the demons were ready for the strength of your conviction.”

Towa interrupted. “Coco, you’re a great friend, _but you are also an idiot._ You really shouldn’t talk back to angelic judges; they literally can throw you deeper into Hell for that. Which, I should note, _Archangel Kurumi literally did._ It’s funny, really; you were so blatant about your beliefs that I get the sense you don’t really have any regrets about being thrown into the underworld.”

Coco shrugged. “That’s because I don’t. The only regret is that I couldn’t do anything for Kanatan; she’s still stuck serving the angel court, and I could tell she hates it.”

Mel pondered.

“Have you considered that Kanata considers her service to the administration of life and death is just the price of living with you? She might just have accepted the rules as is, and this is how she’s chosen to pay the price.”

“Yeah, but when have I ever let ‘rules’ decide what I can or can’t do for a friend?”

All of the present underworld house members laughed.

Ayame added: “The high angels are _really_ powerful. But, I suppose if you’re going to mess with them, I won’t say no. Just don’t annoy the Seraphim, I don’t want to find out if it’s possible to die _again_ in the afterlife; they might be able to test that.”

Towa realized that she suddenly had a unique position in all of this.

_If I successfully strike out against the angels themselves, that will make me the ultimate devil!_

Towa grinned.

“I’m all in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that marks the first chapter to break 4000 words! It’s a long one, but Coco’s quite a blast to write (and no I will not apologize for that pun), to say the least. This ride is turning out to get quite wild. This is also the first chapter to have no footnotes.
> 
> First fight scene I’ve ever written! And probably the last one between two hololive members.
> 
> Next stop: In-between. Not sure who I’ll focus on there; maybe it’ll be a return to the Marine/Shion/Aqua trio, maybe I’ll focus on a different group - the in-between is where I’ll admit I can lazily most of the characters; it’s the afterlife that has most likely the most room to evolve, both narratively and philosophically.
> 
> Looking between this and my other current work, I’m starting to notice that weird amounts of existential philosophy sort of just runs through anything creative I write, so it’s nice to have a chapter where Coco just does Coco things.
> 
> Cameo appearances:  
> Suou Patra (HoneyStrap): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeLzT-7b2PBcunJplmWtoDg  
> Ririsya (Independent): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ucgoC_sGww_Euu5iMqpQw


	6. Across the Middle (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Houshou Pirates set sail to find their friends.
> 
> Meanwhile, a shrine maiden reunites with a rabbit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so important note: this chapter is being split into two parts because it was getting too long.
> 
> I was debating whether or not I was going to include hololiveCN, because they’re kind of no longer a thing anymore. I decided to keep them because I like the characters, and I did subscribe to Civia back when she was on Youtube. So, as a result, hololveCN’s officially going to have a couple appearances, too. That, and everyone’s dead, so that includes them too in the dead category.
> 
> "Standard quotes" are for Japanese, and <angle brackets> (which, fun fact, are a markup that are not fun to display in chapter notes) are being used for Chinese.

“Ahoy! We are the Houshou Pirates!”

Shion grumbled. “You know, Marine, that would be a lot more dramatic if we weren’t on a relatively tiny sailboat.”

Marine smiled. “Close enough for now, and honestly...I might like this better. It’s nice being close with your shipmates. Or maybe I’m just being sentimental over my mortal days, either one goes.”

Out on the deck of the ship that Marine had christened the _Treasure Bell_ , three figures looked out across the relatively flat ocean.

It hadn’t been very long - the island they’d departed from was barely out of sight - but it was the first time that either Shion or Aqua had been outside their starting island out in the in-between.

Marine looked at the sails.

“Adjust the angle slightly to the left.”

Shion raised her hands.

Telekinetics made sailing a lot easier, and arguably safer; in theory, Shion could use her magic to make adjustments to the sails while staying in the cabin, thus not having to even expose herself to the elements; something that might be useful in poor weather.

Aqua sat down and took a moment of silence to appreciate the size of the ocean; the waters going on seemingly endlessly. It was mildly terrifying, even on calm waters.

But she had friends, and both Shion and Marine were trying their hardest to make her feel comfortable. She said she didn’t regret it, and as scary as being out on the open ocean was, she wouldn’t want to be left behind.

It was tempting, but she knew she had to face her fears or she’d just spend the rest of eternity hiding.

_It’s the choice I made. I have to keep going._

Unknown to the three of them, a mysterious figure was watching them from underneath the surface of the water.

* * *

On an entirely different land mass, a mysterious figure walked up to a shrine.

The shrine was familiar; she knew she had been to a building that looked just like it back when she was alive. She knew that there was someone there that she knew; someone who could be a good friend to help her figure out what the hell happened.

But she couldn’t place a name. Not to this shrine’s inhabitant.

And, more worryingly, not to her own. She didn’t remember her name; she remembered happy feelings, both wholesome and chaotic, and she knew that the world had ended; she remembers the horror, the last moments spent with friends and family.

But somehow, the identities were missing. She couldn’t name those friends; only that she once shared happiness with them.

She looked around the shrine.

She reached into her bag, and pulled out a device. It was a cylinder in shape, and at the top of the cylinder, was a thin strip of a flammable material.

A fuse, to be specific.

The visitor raised her rabbit ears.

She lit the fuse, and threw the stick of dynamite right into the center of the shrine grounds.

If this didn’t bring the attention of the shrine’s occupant to her, nothing would.

* * *

Back on the ocean, thousands of miles away, Aqua looked out at the ocean, the vastness of it somewhat overwhelming her. She breathed deeply, trying not to let it terrify her.

“It reminds you of how small you really are, doesn’t it.”

Aqua looked back at Marine, fear replaced with annoyance at the quip made about her height.

Marine smiled. “I mean that in a grand sense, though, honestly, you really do feel like a little imouto-chan to me. Or maybe I’m just rambling on because you’re adorable. I don’t really know. I’m glad you were willing to join me. I know that you’re probably not the most comfortable out here, but it does save me the trouble of having to come back and get you with the rest of the gang.”

Aqua looked about. Something was off. Something was _moving_ in her peripheral vision.

She looked a little harder, and then she saw it:

A face.

Aqua’s eyes widened.

Marine noticed, and then looked at the direction that Aqua was looking at.

Aqua moved closer to the edge, curiosity getting the better of her, while saying nothing. And then her foot slipped, sending her tumbling forwards towards the water as she fell over.

Marine practically leaped to Aqua’s position as fast as she could, but she suddenly wished she had either faster reflexes or greater strength as she grabbed Aqua by the leg, barely catching her and stopping her from falling into the ocean. She shouted in a _very_ worried voice.

“Shion! Get over here!”

Shion immediately turned around and ran towards the situation.

She felt her heart stop at the sight of Aqua nearly falling off the ship.

_Nononononononono-_

Shion raised her hands - it’d be rough, but she could telekinetically yank Aqua back on board if necessary.

Marine felt her grip slip.

_Please, no, not her-_

And then Aqua got _pushed_ back on to the bow of the ship from the ocean.

Shion was confused. Marine was confused. Aqua was confused, being disoriented.

And then, out of the water, a new figure jumped: a mermaid. Something strange happened: while in the air, the mermaid tail split; a quick flash of light, and in its place were a pair of human legs.

 **Doris** landed in front of the trio, which responded by changing expressions from confused to shocked.

Marine was the first to respond, smiling and responding to the new visitor.

“Ahoy! Senchou Houshou Marine desu!” (1)

The mermaid replied: <Um, I’m Doris.>

The only issue was that she introduced herself in Chinese, not Japanese.

* * *

Thousands of kilometers away, a rabbit girl observed her handiwork.

The dynamite wasn’t particularly powerful. It wasn’t designed to be; this was primarily being used as a high-tier attention grabbing tool. The scorch mark and sound of an explosion would do the job. She grinned; she didn’t know why explosives jumped to her as the first way to grab the shrine occupant's attention; it just seemed like the right tool for the job (2) and she figured it was unlikely that anyone who lived here would ignore her.

She laughed.

“HA↑HA↓HA↑HA↓HA↑HA↓HA↑HA↓HA-”

Her laughter was cut off by getting bonked on the head and getting knocked into the ground by someone who was behind her. If drawn in an anime style, there’d be a lump on her head and her eyes would be drawn as a pair of spirals.

A pink-haired shrine maiden looked at the person who defiled her property.

“FAQ...wait, Peko-chan?”

* * *

As it turns out, getting along wasn’t actually too difficult. The four members of the Treasure Bell were sitting around a table in the cabin of the ship, playing card games and casually chatting with each other. Despite the language barrier, communicating with Doris was starting to become possible with relatively simple sentences.

Aqua looked down, trying to avoid directly looking at the face of the mermaid who sat across the table from her, and also trying to balance - the ship wasn’t quite perfectly still.

“I’m sorry, Doris.”

Doris seemed more curious than anything else. <Hmm?>

“I know you were happy, back then.”

<It wasn’t your fault, Aqua. It’s not really anyone’s. It just...kind of happened. Hololive was fun, but, well...>

Marine seemed sentimental about the whole thing.

“You’re part of hololive as much as any of us are. Mostly because there is no hololive anymore, unless we make it happen again.”

Aqua smiled. Shion liked looking eternally smug, but she also smiled.

_There’s no reason we can’t be friends now._

Aqua played down another card, feeling something was off. It was probably just her, but it felt like the ship’s floor wasn’t being as flat as it should be.

Shion, on the other hand, commented on the feeling directly: “Is it just me, or is the ocean getting a little less peaceful?”

Marine didn’t seem to be bothered, but she decided to acknowledge her friends.

“No, it’s definitely a little windier. I’ll admit I think I should play it safe, if possible.”

Doris responded to the request.

<Nearest land is East.>

She made a little gesture pointing the direction with her hands to communicate the intent without words.

Marine smiled.

“Shion, adjust the sails due East. I’m not sure I want to be out if the weather worsens, and we’re dangerously exposed here.”

Shion raised her hands - she’d telekinetically finagled with the rigging enough she didn’t bother to get up from her position; she could make adjustments from inside.

“Actually, we’re already going that direction.”

Suddenly, they all heard a sound, and one that you never wanted to hear out on the open ocean.

The sound of thunder.

All four members took a look outside.

Looking around at the ocean, they found two things.

The first is that in the distance, to the East, was land - and it didn’t look like a small island. Marine smiled at the sight; there was a good chance she could find people she knew, which was the first business of order.

Then she looked to the South, and her eyes widened. In the distance was a mass of clouds, but it wasn’t any mass of clouds - it was a fairly normal storm, except for the fact that at the center of it was what looked like some horrendous humanoid demon-shaped cloud. It looked like someone gave a tropical storm a ‘soul’, so to speak.

And it was catching up.

“This is your captain speaking. We might be in some trouble. We’re basically going to hope like crazy we get to land before the storm gets to us; I don’t want to worry you guys but this is what could accurately be called ‘Yabai’.”

Minato Aqua looked to Shion, who stared back. Both of them were rightfully scared; they had no idea what to expect of this demon-storm.

Shion raised her hands.

“I’ve got a spell or two that might help.”

A mysterious gust of wind filled the sails, to keep the direction of the ship straight.

“That’s as fast as I can make it go.”

The three of them looked at each other.

<I’ll help. I have magic.>

“Doris? I can’t ask you to-”

<We are hololive.>

The statement wasn’t complicated. It didn’t need to be.

Marine took charge. “Doris, it’s selfish, but I need _you_ to stay out. You’re the only one who can breathe underwater, so it’s the least dangerous for you to be exposed to the ocean. Shion can adjust the sails from down below, which means she doesn’t risk getting swept off. I mean, you risk it too, but you’re also a mermaid.”

She pointed to the bow, in a motion to indicate Doris’ requested position.

Doris nodded her head, getting the gist of it.

Shion raised her hands. “Actually, if we’re doing it that way, this might help.”

_Mindlink!_

The thought was communicated telepathically. Shion grinned, while Doris, Aqua, and Marine looked at each other. Shion continued:

_It’ll help if we get cut off, though if we get separated too far, the spell will fizzle. And it’ll break if I fail to maintain the spell, so if I stop responding, I’m either gone or you got swept away._

Marine looked at Aqua and Doris.

_Let’s just stick together, shall we?_

Aqua grabbed on to Shion, looking at her as the demonic-looking storm approached.

 _Yeah,_ Shion thought, _It’s probably best that we take cover. Doris, we’re relying on you._

_ <I’m happy to help - I’m not abandoning my friends, even ones I wasn’t able to meet while I was alive. We’re in this together, and together we are hololive.> _

The other three didn’t quite get the message over the language barrier, but the sentiment was understood.

* * *

 **Usada Pekora** regained her senses and general awareness. She was in a Japanese shrine, and she still didn’t remember who she was or who she was looking for.

On the other hand, while she didn’t recognize the face on the other side of the room, she knew that somehow it was one of the people she was looking for. Something about the pink hair and the overly decorated miko outfit struck her as something she _should_ remember but didn’t.

 **Sakura Miko** looked at her friend. An awkward moment of silence hung in the air; neither of them quite sure how to greet each other.

Miko broke the silence, her patience running out.

“Nya-hello, Usada Pekora.”

Pekora stared back.

“So, um...is that my name? I...I don’t remember, peko.”

Miko’s eyes widened. Much like everyone else, she’d been briefed on the potential memory loss, but it seemed unbelievable that _Usada Pekora_ of all people would be in that category.

Granted, Miko herself was missing a different block of her memory. She doesn’t remember how it ended; she knows she died, but as far as she knows, she could’ve died at the same time as Pekora, or maybe she died months earlier.

Meanwhile, Pekora seemed to get frustrated.

“Argh, I know that I know you! I remember having so many happy times with...with who? It’s just...I can’t remember them. The names, the faces, they’re all missing to me, even my own, peko. I remember dying with you, and yet I can’t remember who you are.”

_Well, that answers that. I died at the same time. I wish I remembered what the last part of my life was like. I remember Pekora, though. She's my best friend._

Miko laughed.

“You don’t remember that your name is Usada Pekora, and yet you still add -peko to the end of your sentences. Nya-hello, I’m Sakura Miko. You used to call me ‘Miko-senpai’, though hololive is…”

She frowned.

“Well, it’s gone. Alongside with the rest of the mortal world.”

Pekora frowned.

“Really? It’s me, Usada Pekora, hololive 3rd gen-”

She paused.

“Wait, how did I say that? I don’t actually remember that. I remember hololive, but...I can’t remember who was in it. I guess I was in it, because I know that’s my introduction, but...well, it doesn’t matter now. Who else is here?”

Miko continued her solemn expression.

“I don’t know, Usada. I haven’t found anyone else.”

She teared up a bit.

“You’re the first person to find me, and, well, it was kind of something watching you pull out the dynamite because...you’re still you, Peko-chan. You’re still my friend; even missing your identity, you haven't changed. If you don’t have anywhere to stay, You should live here. It’ll be less lonely.”

Pekora tilted her head. Thinking about it.

“Yes-peko.”

* * *

Aqua’s opinion on the open ocean had gone from ‘mildly terrifying’ to ‘very terrifying’. The ship was rocking back and forth, both forwards and sideways, and she was waiting for something to go terribly wrong. She was scared, _terrified_ , all saddled with the terrible thought that there’s nothing she could do to increase her chances of survival.

Shion looked at her left arm, which was starting to lose blood circulation due to how hard Aqua was gripping it. If it made Aqua feel less scared, that was entirely a worthwhile price to pay. 

The only problem is that Shion was just as scared, she was just better at not looking the part. 

Doris was still in contact, though, so there’s that.

_Doris, how are things?_

_Yabai!_

Shion almost had to laugh; Doris using the Japanese word was kind of funny out of context.

In context, it was more unfortunate.

Out of the three not exposed to the elements, the most terrified was Marine. This ship was small and not designed for this kind of weather at all. Then again, no ship truly was; you learned to respect the ocean or you would quickly be at the bottom of it; many a captain had found that out the hard way.

She knew that landfall was close, but she was also looking at the odds. They weren’t great, and it was looking more likely with each minute that the adventure would end with the four of them getting dumped into the ocean. Time was running out; the storm had caught up to them. She didn’t want to say it out loud, but she was pretty sure that this was it for her.

Marine wasn’t sure how dying in the afterlife worked; she very much did not want to find out.

Marine looked at Aqua and Shion, who were both pretty evidently scared of the same thing.

_Please, not them. Let them survive this, even if I don’t._

A telepathic scream ran out through the three of them.

_ <LOOK OUT!> _

They didn’t quite get the words, but the sentiment was clear without them.

Marine looked out the window of the cabin, and saw just how screwed they really were.

The view outside the window was a veritable wall of water; it seemed like the ocean had opened up to swallow the ship whole.

Doris, to her credit, did the right thing, which was to face a watery grave head on; getting caught by the side would be an instant capsize. She adjusted the angle of the ship, heading straight forward.

The ship went vertical as the ocean crashed into the ship. For the trio inside, the world went sideways; the three of them slid and fell to the end of the ship’s cabin.

Doris, on the other hand, was swept off of the ship. Her legs transformed back to her mermaid tail, and she dived into the water.

On the inside, chaos reigned. Shion internally swore, as it felt like the end of the world all over again, only with water instead of fire, with Aqua holding on to her, praying that Shion found some miracle to save them, and Shion, mentally cursing how little she could do to save them.

A horrifying crack was heard. The sheer force of the water had exceeded the ship’s structural integrity. The ship broke apart; the ocean rushed to fill in the space.

Time seemed to freeze. Aqua closed her eyes as her world ended, keeping her grip on Shion and taking a deep breath. Shion stared at the water rushing towards her, similarly taking a breath; she had lost sight of Marine when the ship broke apart.

And then they were underwater.

The impact of the water practically sent them into shock, both with the impact and with the cold. 

Shion tried to summon her magic; she couldn’t, the shock of the water fizzling any spell she could try to cast; she couldn’t focus under the pressure.

Her lungs were practically on fire; she was praying she could make it to the surface of the water before she couldn’t hold it.

Shion felt Aqua’s hold on her suddenly go limp; the grip no longer had the force she had been using. Shion could guess what that meant.

_Please, no…why is my magic so useless? Why are we destined to both die together again?_

Not able to hold it any further, Murasaki Shion, out of options, took a breath.

Water filled her lungs as she lost consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) “Ahoy! I’m captain Houshou Marine!” is the translation, but I leave it in Japanese because it’s a catchphrase.
> 
> (2) Granted, given the identity of the person in question, on certain days explosives are the tool for every job. It just happened this was one of those days, despite her not remembering why.
> 
> I'm really sorry about where I split the chapter; that was an awfully mean place to leave you guys hanging.
> 
> Obviously, I’m not actually killing off characters (or, at the very least, I'm not setting up a plot arc only to cruelly dismantle it). I promise you, despite how bad it looks, Aqua, Shion, and Marine are just fine. Well, okay, no, they're very not-fine, but I promise they’ll all be, well, after-alive in Part 2.


	7. Across the Middle (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miracles happen often when you live in a realm of storytellers.
> 
> Hololive Fantasy once again comes together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you weren’t too distressed by how things went sideways in the last chapter. Here’s the continuation. Next chapter, as per usual rotation, goes back to Heaven, though I’m going to work on time shenanigans next, as per the usual back-and-forth.
> 
> I got a lot of comments on the last chapter! I’m really happy to see that people actually like this silly thing, written as a weird combination of silly in-the-moment writing desires and varying amounts of existential philosophy.
> 
> Features our first cameo from Nijisanji, and now, finally, calling this the ‘fantasy arc’ actually makes sense again; as now we have, well, you’ll see who. Or have already seen who, if you look at the character tags frequently.

Minato Aqua woke up.

The first thing she was aware of was the fact that she was lying in sand. The second thing was that the sun was up; it was early afternoon.

She got up, and then immediately coughed up a large amount of seawater. She was amazed at the sheer volume; she was amazed that it somehow fit in her lungs.

The second thing she became aware of was the sheer relief of her friends. Mostly because that relief came in the form of a very tight hug from both Houshou Marine and Murasaki Shion.

No words were spoken; they didn’t need to be.

They let go, taking a moment to look at each other.

Marine spoke, breaking the silence on the beach.

“You’re alive. I’m alive. We’re all alive, somehow.”

Marine was practically crying; every train of thought had been redirected to the sheer relief and the fact that she hadn’t actually drowned two of her senpais.

“When I woke up, I didn’t see you at first, and I thought...I thought that fate had cruelly let me live and taken both of you...It’s just...I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you with me.”

Shion finally replied.

“Look, as long as I don’t have to board another ship you’re commandeering, I’ll let this whole thing go.”

Marine sighed. “That’s fair. I don’t think I should be allowed to set sail after nearly sending us all to the ocean’s floor.”

They looked around, and saw Doris, who smiled at the trio.

<I don’t know how you three survived, but I’m glad you did.>

They wished they understood what Doris had said.

Shion commented further, relief giving way to sarcasm: “You know, when I made references to it feeling like we were in a storybook, I wasn’t quite ready for it to turn into a bad adventure book. I mean, seriously, having us all miraculously wash up on shore after some supernaturally bad storm?”

Marine had to laugh at that, and then she had a realization:

“Shion-tan, do you remember what we were told about the afterlife?”

“That it was largely powered by spiritual belief?”

“Yes. But that means that, in a sense, this is a world powered by stories; powered by how people _want_ the world around them to work. The fact that the world acts like it’s out of a storybook makes a lot of sense, when you think about it.”

She sighed.

“I won’t complain. That was three miracles that happened today, and I’ll take all three of them. It doesn’t make physical sense - looking at the time of day, we were definitely underwater for too long to have possibly survived - but I’ll gladly be part of the story this world wants to tell, if it means that you two also survived. I’m not sure if I could live with myself if either of you didn’t make it. I can barely live with myself for dragging you down this far.”

Aqua replied, still sad.

“I agreed to come with you. That was my decision.”

She started crying.

“You couldn’t have known, so please forgive yourself!”

Marine sighed.

“I know, it’s just...you and Shion-tan almost died.”

Aqua was puzzled. “Um, how does dying in the afterlife work?”

Shion shrugged. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out.”

Doris walked up to the trio. <What now?>

It was a simple enough inquiry.

Marine suddenly looked a lot more serious.

“I’m gonna be honest. Our chances still aren’t great. We are somehow alive, but we’re still badly exposed to the elements on this shoreline; we need to find shelter before sunset or we’ll likely freeze to death. After one round of miracles, I’d rather not rely on an immediate second.”

Aqua and Shion looked at each other. Aqua spoke, still evidently quite scared of how precarious their survival really was.

“So...what do we do?”

Marine sighed.

“This island has signs of habitation. I think there’s probably a town or such; I think our best bet is to go inland and make the gamble on finding people. We either find civilization, or we die.”

Doris replied in Chinese, while pointing.

<Wait! There’s someone coming!>

Shion turned around.

“Or, maybe civilization finds _us_ instead.”

She pointed to a figure in the distance. He was distinctly male, was tall with blonde hair, and was dressed in a full knight outfit, complete with a sword on his back.

His name was **Ex Albio** , and he happened to be strolling by - his sense of heroism was making him check on the shoreline to see if there was residual damage done by the storm, though for the most part it had avoided making landfall. For the most part, there wasn’t, as was to be expected, but he was a responsible man, or at least playing the role of one for now.

It turned out to be a lucky decision, as he saw the washed-up Houshou pirates.

Shion decided to talk first.

“Hey! You know where the nearest town is? We kind of got washed up by the storm, and we’re kind down on our luck.”

Ex Albio responded relatively calmly.

“You’re in luck, actually - My name is Ex Albio, and, well, I’m the local hero. As in, that’s the role I call myself, I haven’t necessarily earned it in this world.”

Marine smiled. “Well, you’re playing the big hero role well-enough now, being our savior - though, I’d imagine your type would get into Heaven.”

Albio cringed. “I kind of abandoned a lot of my hero duties in favour of having fun. I don’t regret it, but, at the end of the day, I kind of gave up on the whole ‘hero’ thing, and the angels pinned me for that. As I’m now stuck in the in-between, I have another chance to try and actually be who I claimed to be; eventually I’ll be allowed in Heaven, if I can make up my sins in this world. Or maybe I’ll just stay here; I don’t really know. It’s only fair to help others, even if you are the rather infamous Houshou Marine, formerly wanted pirate.”

The four hololive members gasped.

Marine turned around to face her friends.

“Shion, Aqua. We don’t have a choice, really. We’re exhausted, without any of our belongings, and, as of right now, essentially homeless. I know you don’t want to see me like this, but I think it’s best if we just turn ourselves in. I was wanted alive, remember.”

Shion frowned, but she had to admit, the logic was sound. Survival was priority right now.

Marine turned around to face Albio.

“We’ll come with you. Please, if not for me, then for Shion-tan and Aqu-tan.”

Albion smiled.

“The bounty was called off; they don’t want everyone hunting you down. I’ll get you guys a room in the local inn, and then we can discuss actually getting to a city from there.”

The Houshou pirates looked at each other for a brief moment.

“We’ll go with you.”

* * *

Sakura Miko looked at the peacefully sleeping form of her friend.

The truly chaotic idol rabbit, Usada Pekora, tamed easily by a shrine maiden.

Part of her was sad that Pekora didn’t remember who she was. But she wasn’t too sad; the important thing was that she managed to keep her happiness; individual memories could be replaced, important knowledge re-learned.

As long as she was still Usada Pekora, then Miko could rekindle the fires (1) of friendship.

Miko looked around the shrine’s bedroom. She spoke softly to her best friend.

“Do you want breakfast?”

Pekora stirred, but was still mostly asleep.

“Un.”

Miko smiled. Only she knew what Pekora was like when she was asleep.

“Can I borrow your bag?”

“Un.”

Miko reached in, and pulled out two sticks of dynamite. “Can I keep these?”

“Un.”

Miko grinned. This would be the perfect revenge for the manner that Pekora introduced herself to her in the afterlife. It was all a matter of timing of when to deploy it, since Pekora was likely not awake enough to remember that she had let Miko keep some of her explosives.

* * *

The inn was part of a town that barely qualified as a town. As it turned out, this was a common stop between two more major cities; and as a result, the area was settled, but not very.

The room that Albio had booked the trio was fairly spacious. Doris had chosen to go jump into the nearest body of water; as a mermaid, she slept more easily underwater than above it. Albio himself said he’d spend the night elsewhere; as a male he’d automatically make all bedtime activities awkward, or at least that was his excuse.

That left the three of them in the room, which was nice, but there was one slight issue, which was that there were only two beds.

Shion decided to state a hardline stance fairly early.

“Alright, I might be a little brat, but I am not sharing a bed with Marine, mostly because we are not repeating _that_ incident.”

Aqua was just confused: “Which incident?”

Shion sighed. “Right, you don’t remember that. Let’s just say I slept over at Marine’s house once, and I spent the rest of my mortal life regretting it.”

Marine did a faux offended voice.

“Oh, Shion-tan, I’m so hurt by that. I thought we had a blooming love, only for you to deny-”

Shion glared at Marine.

“Alright, fine.”

Aqua stared between the two beds, both of which were occupied.

She decided to curl up in the bed Shion was occupying. She didn’t know why.

The sheer mental and physical exhaustion of the day hit all three of them. Upon climbing into their beds, they practically all collapsed and fell asleep nearly instantly.

* * *

Usada Pekora woke up, her mind fuzzy enough that she wasn’t aware that Miko had her explosive ordinance in her possession.

Miko was in the kitchen, deciding to arbitrarily go with pancakes. There wasn’t any particular reason, she just felt like it.

“Peko-chan. I made some pancakes for you.”

“Arigatou-peko.”

* * *

Minato Aqua was drowning. She didn’t know where she was, only that she was underwater; the horrible sensation of feeling her lungs filling with water as she eventually breathed-

The dream broke. Aqua woke up, and then took a moment to breathe, now that it was clearer that she was not actually underwater. She had survived that accursed voyage, by some miracle.

The memories of that were going to haunt her, she could tell. The sheer power of the ocean and the sensation of how her body shut down as she drowned were all too horrifying to forget easily. She shivered, thinking about it; she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to approach the ocean again after that experience.

She heard a noise, and an unusual one. It was soft; concealed by the fact that the origin of the sound was trying to be as quiet as possible. It was hard to hide, because the origin was beside her, in bed.

The sound was Shion’s crying. It wasn’t loud at all; it was a practically silent weep.

Aqua didn’t know what to do. She moved slowly, and put an arm around Shion.

Shion turned her head to face Aqua.

She whispered. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

Aqua frowned. She knew what Shion meant; in the end, it was luck that saved both of their lives, not anything they did. In terms of expected results, there was no sugarcoating it - they should have both died. Aqua’s expected last moments were hugging Shion, with nothing she could’ve done. She knew that it was the end; the only solace was dying together with her best friend.

“I couldn’t save you back in the mortal realm. I couldn’t save you on the ocean, here. All of my spells...and I still can’t protect you. All I’ve done is die beside you.”

Aqua whispered back.

“The mortal realm?”

“When the worldfire happened, I tried to save us with a barrier. It wasn’t nearly strong enough; it broke instantly and we burned to death instead. You...you spent your last moments in horrible agony, begging me to do something...and all I did was die beside you, my magic useless against the inferno. You died in my arms, as I died in yours.”

Aqua slowly moved her body closer to Shion’s.

“And then, when we were on the ocean...I had nothing to save us. The ocean practically ate our ship, and I had nothing that could save us from drowning. You grabbed me, spending your last moments praying for me to do anything to save us...and I couldn’t. Why can’t I save you? Why is it always useless in the end?”

Aqua hugged Shion, and started crying.

“It’s not your fault. You’re trying. You’re always trying. And you’re wrong. I...I knew it was over when I grabbed you. I didn’t want to die alone. It’s not your fault. There was nothing you could’ve done.”

Shion continued crying.

“That’s what I hate. I want to be _able_ to save you, just once, when everything goes wrong.”

Aqua hugged Shion. It was uncomfortable; she had no practice trying to physically comfort a friend at all, let alone one she had no mortal recollection of, and yet, it was the only thing she could do.

She cried; both of them were so close to death there; and they knew that the scars from it wouldn’t fade soon. Even though they survived, the ocean had been a brutal reminder that they didn’t make it to Heaven - this was a world where bad things could very much still happen.

The veil of kindness had been stripped; the storybook had entered into the rising action.

Embracing each other, they fell back asleep.

* * *

Albio knocked on the door to the room that the pirate trio was sleeping at.

“Hope you slept well.”

A moment of silence.

A quiet, timid voice was heard from behind the door.

“Um...should I wake Marine and Shion up?”

“Go ahead, if you want to.”

A moment of silence.

A second pair of footsteps.

Another moment of silence.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?! I didn’t even sleep in the same bed!”

And that was Shion; the second pair of footsteps had to Marine’s.

Albio sighed. “I’ll be downstairs.”

And with that, Albio walked downstairs to the lobby; the room was paid for.

The trio walked down the stairs, joining Albio.

Albio greeted them.

“Hello, ladies. Is the lovely mermaid joining us today?”

Doris walked into the front door.

Albio laughed.

“Well, that was answered quickly. In terms of actually getting to the city, we’ll take the train.”

All four of the hololive members paused.

Marine objected. “Train? Doesn’t that contradict the whole ‘medieval fantasy’ thing this world does?”

Albio laughed.

“Ah, right, you’re new - the answer is that, while going with that thematic is highly popular, as newer souls enter, they often make upgrades. The more ancient ones tend to like the traditions they start, so as a result architecture tends to be bizarrely inconsistent as they stick with it when the world tries to move on. The train network might actually be the best demonstration of it; that’s a technology discrepancy hundreds of years out from the architectural style of the rest of the town.

“If it helps any, it took me a bit to get used to - the main thing to remember is that the existence of spiritually-empowered magic means that a lot of technologies get substitutions long before being formally invented here, and you got here fairly late.”

And, on cue, they found the train station. It was exactly as out of place as Marine thought it would be - in a village that looked out of the renaissance era, there was a train station that could only exist hundreds of years after said renaissance era.

Marine wasn’t going to complain. Train rides were a lot more comfortable than multi-day hikes through what was effectively wilderness.

Albio smiled.

“Follow me.”

Marine sighed.

“I guess we have no idea what the local geography is like, do we.”

“It actually helps if you’ve studied the history of the place, so I’ll explain while we’re on the train.”

* * *

The five virtual streamers had taken their seats on the train as it moved throughout the countryside. None of them were particularly interested on the outside, as Albio explained the very recent history of the place they were in - history that they missed, barely.

“So, the thing is, a lot of the territory around here was kind of originally the elves - this is because the in-between actually works as an intersection afterlife for multiple worlds; which is why we are still getting new souls. It’s really just your world that kind of, well, went all on fire at once. I happened to physically be on your world when that happened, which is why I’m here.

“When your world ended, a lot of humans kind of popped up in here, and, funnily enough, they kind of took over the place. The elves didn’t like this; so they kicked up a fuss, and then, well, a very brief but very stupid war happened. The elves had no chance whatsoever; they were outnumbered, and we also had a very elite order of knights knocking them down several pegs.”

Albio breathed.

“They were - and still are - known as the Order of Shirogane.”

Marine and Shion gasped.

“Okay, so you’ve heard of them. Well, it gets a little weird here. Namely, the war ties into a stalemate. You see, the Order of Shirogane turns around. It stops helping the human faction, and basically decides that the war is stupid and we should just all just like, not do that and join together, and that we should actually stop being mean to the elves.

“The order’s allies object. The order holds firm, and when they declare the order traitorous to the human race, well, the order starts winning against them. The leader of the order is known for being a terror in combat. It’s said that if you get into a fight with her, you should just surrender - it’s quick, painless, and leads to the same end result as trying to fight. The order called a peacekeeping talk, which people went along with because no one could really stop them, where they redrew the national boundaries - and they were quite generous to the elves; more generous than any other human-led faction would’ve been. Some people are still mad at the order over that, but for the most part it settled down in a couple of weeks, mostly because no one wanted to fight Shirogane over that.

“Ever since then, it’s clear that the order is working in some sort of union with the elves; and while the whole thing has settled down - the war was stupid, Shirogane was totally right about that - to this day there are still theories upon theories going on about why the leader would suddenly side with the elves rather than kicking them out of the area. They're lucky. No one will mess with them as long as the Order of Shirogane still agrees to keep the terms. Not that it matters, now; the formerly split human factions, at the end of the war, incorporated into the peaceful nation known now as the Moon kingdom, which is where we currently are.”

There was an announcement that the next stop was the terminal station of the line.

Albio looked outside briefly, and then frowned.

“Well, last stop. You ladies were great company, which is why I have to apologize for pulling the wool over your eyes, so to speak. You see I’m not part of the order, but I _am_ connected to them, and working for them. The order wants you, Marine.”

All of the other members stared at Albio.

“But you said I’m not wanted anymore.”

“I said very specifically that the bounty was called off, because the caller didn’t want everyone going after you. This is because, for some reason, the Order of Shirogane very specifically wants you, Marine; they don’t want anyone else gunning for you. Honestly, I don’t know what they want you for, but if they want you, I’m not going to argue with them. I figure snagging the rest of the Houshou pirates helps, as well.”

The train doors opened.

On the other side was a knight, on foot. She held a military stance, and had a mace, the operational end currently resting on the floor.

 **Shirogane Noel** stood tall, waiting just outside the train.

Ex Albio waved. “It’s been lovely chatting with you ladies, but you are going with her, now - I don’t mess with the orders of the leader. She appears to know you.”

The quartet walked outside. Marine let the other three go in front of her, taking a position in the back.

“Kon-ban-muscle!” (2)

“Ahoy!”

Marine smiled; she wasn’t under arrest at all. This was just some giant scheme that Noel thought up to meet her friends.

Then she froze, because there was a problem: Noel was not the kind of person to come up with schemes like this. She might be a terror in a fight, she believed that much, but to set up a scheme to reunite hololive fantasy via a fake arrest? Not her style.

Another figure dropped in from above. This figure, an elf, with dark skin and blond hair.

“Kon-nui!” (3)

 **Shiranui Flare** dropped in beside her partner.

_Close, but Flare I don’t think has it, either. Still, it’s nice to see her again._

Marine smiled, but unlike the past day or two, it wasn’t a wise, relieved, or otherwise innocent smile.

It was a flirtatious smile filled with entirely lustful intent, aimed at Flare.

Shion noticed, as did Noel and Doris.

Doris commented first, mostly muttering under her breath.

<Oh no, we have another Spade Echo.>

Shion commented second, not even letting Marine start.

“Marine, I know you flirt with nearly everyone, but are you seriously going to do this? While _Noel_ is watching? Are you _really_ going to be horny as your first interaction with one of your friends you haven’t seen since you were alive?”

True to her word, Noel had tightened her hold on her mace, though she hadn’t raised it.

Marine smirked.

“That’s my secret.”

Shion, Noel and Flare suddenly preemptively started to cringe, as Shion had inadvertently walked into an absolutely terrible punchline.

“I’m _always_ hor-”

_BONK!_

The punchline was interrupted by Marine getting hit in the head from behind at a speed that could only be described as cartoonishly fast, ending her into the ground in an instant.

 **Uruha Rushia** stared at the now downed Marine.

“Kon-rushi.”

The greeting was said in a slightly murderous tone. Marine, hearing this, took a moment to reorganize her thoughts, now that it was clear that Rushia was there.

_Oh, so that’s who planned this whole thing. Clever girl._

“There are definitely easier ways to meet up than arresting me, Rushia. I'm innocent!”

She wasn't quite ready for Rushia to immediately switch to her sugar-sweet voice. “You stole my heart, Marine. It took dying and being separated from you for me to finally realize it.”

She then stopped using that voice. “And that's why you're in trouble. With us. But mostly, with me; Noel and Flare just thought it'd be funny to help me capture you.”

Marine sighed somewhat lustfully, not even trying to be subtle about it. “Well, then I suppose you'll have your way with me.”

She got bonked again in response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) In this case, possibly literal fires instead of the usual figurative ones used in this analogy.
> 
> (2) There’s no translation for this. It doesn’t even make sense in Japanese.
> 
> (3) In fact, any “Kon-[insert word]” greeting will probably just be left in Japanese because there’s really no equivalence for it; plus, it’s a catchphrase, and catchphrases don’t actually need to make sense in the same way.
> 
> In other notes, there’s all five of them! Pekora admittedly separated from the other four, but yes, we now have all of hololive fantasy safely (for some definitions of safely) reincarnated in the in-between.
> 
> Cameo Appearance:  
> Ex Albio (Nijisanji): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIytNcoz4pWzXfLda0DoULQ


	8. Wings of an Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amane Kanata keeps her angel wings.
> 
> This is in spite of the fact she's doing her best to lose them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The flashback at the start of this chapter is shared with Chapter 5 - read that to understand how we got here.
> 
> This is actually the first chapter to not introduce anyone new.
> 
> As we now enter the third cycle, I’m now actually taking suggestions! You see, while I have a plan to go full smash ultimate (Everyone is Here!) I don’t actually have everyone here, in terms of plot arcs. Here are all of the hololivers that I do not have any specific idea how I’m going to handle (some of them have their afterlives set, but nothing beyond that):  
> \- All of the holostars except Roberu, Shien, and Oga  
> \- Roboco because I haven't written an excuse for her to get into the afterlife as a robot (I have an excuse right now but it’s really unsatisfying and I don’t really want to use it)  
> \- Suisei  
> \- Matsuri, Aki Rosenthal, Haachama (I have ideas but the split-personality thing is weird and could go basically anywhere)  
> \- Watame  
> \- All of hololive 5th generation except Aloe ironically (Aloe’s underworld-bound by species)  
> \- All of hololiveCN except Doris (duh, she’s already in the fic)  
> \- All of hololiveID except Moona (you can guess, peko)  
> \- Takanashi Kiara, because her reincarnation thing means I need a plot excuse for her to show up in the afterlife
> 
> Feel free to just leave suggestions in the comments below (or use the resources in my profile if you wish to do so to DM me, I’m most available via Discord (wrsw#0132)). If you have anyone else you want to show up in a cameo role, you can also leave them in said comments, though they’ll only appear if I can find a good opportunity to fit their character designs in.
> 
> Also, I’m going back and linking the oneshot off-hololive cameo channels in the endnotes from this point onwards (in fact I’ve gone back and added them to previous chapters’ endnotes), mostly because a bunch of them are cool and it’s fun to know who the cameo livers are.
> 
> (Also added this to the fic opening notes)

_A few hours ago…_

Archangel Kurumi raised the gavel. “The court finds Kiryu Coco guilty. You are hereby sentenced to the underworld. Trial is no longer in session.”

Coco looked at Kanata, who just wore a solemn, serious expression on her face, mouthing a nearly silent “I’m sorry.” in Coco’s direction.

Coco looked back, and smiled toward her friend.

“It’s worth it, Kana-tan.”

Kurumi brought the gavel down.

The floor disappeared from underneath Coco’s feet. Gravity took over as Coco fell into the abyss.

Silence reigned over the court.

Kurumi spoke, breaking the silence.

“Amane-san. I wish to speak with you. Ririsya-san, you are dismissed.”

Ririsya left the room, leaving Kanata and Kurumi alone.

Kurumi stepped down from the judge’s seat, taking a position where she was level with Kanata.

“I am sorry about that. My judgement is known for being both swift and absolute. As hard as it is to believe, but I do understand human feelings, sometimes - or that, as above-it-all as we angels claim to be, at heart we were born from beings with the capacity to sin. I know it could not have been easy to watch your best friend - or possibly greater - get thrown into Hell.”

Kanata wasn’t sure. Kurumi’s court was cold and mechanical; that was the way it always had been. She wasn’t sure a being of absolute judgement could truly understand how deep those feelings were.

Not that Kanata was allowed to show that. Her face remained as neutral as ever. While the angels preferred to keep a polite smile, stone-faced professionalism was also often accepted, especially in more clerical positions.

She couldn’t bring herself to smile; and at least Kurumi accepted that much.

“Amane-san. If you have words, you may speak them; we are off the court record.”

Kanata knew that Kurumi never lied, so she finally spoke.

“You threw my best friend into Hell because of me. She literally _died together with me_ back when the world ended, and you repaid her by sending her to the fires below. If we’re off-record, then I’ll say that the moment this term expires, I am _never_ working with you again.”

Kurumi paused.

“I understand. To be honest, I am not sure I will stand as a judge much longer.”

Kanata was surprised; to the best of her recollection Kurumi had always had pride in her position.

“Why?”

“The world I was sworn to serve...it does not exist anymore. And not just physically; it is clear to me that, as the barriers between worlds thinned for whatever cause brought your group together, the rules that governed individual worlds were never ready to handle it. In a sense, I have thrown Kiryu-san into Hell for something that, when looked at from a different angle, might not be a sin. And that would be a mark on _my_ record, if it is not.”

Something in Kanata snapped. Her best friend might have been thrown into Hell for _nothing,_ and the thought made Kanata furious.

“Then _WHY?! Why did you do this to her?!_ Isn’t this _your_ court?!”

“It is, but the rules I govern by have not changed. I cannot change them, and to rule _against_ them would be to cast thousands of years of rulings into doubt. Heaven has always been cast as an authority that operates ‘above’ other realms. If that changes...well, I don’t plan on being in this position when that happens. With that in mind, Kanata, you have been cooperative, and I think you have earned yourself some vacation time off in the Heavens. You _will_ be expected back here, but as you serve at my discretion, I am officially granting you a leave of absence.”

She conjured a letter making the leave official.

“So take some time off, Amane-san. Maybe some time to think will ease your mind.”

* * *

Tokino Sora was relaxing outside her little house in the heavens.

It wasn’t so little anymore; having suddenly to fit seven people required some expanding the property. It was still relatively small; she liked the cozy atmosphere and wanted to see if she could keep it.

It still didn’t have beds for all of them; Sora’s expectations about Fubuki not sleeping were entirely on the money; she had dedicated herself to the Holo-Life (1) back in the mortal realm, and now that there was no longer a biological need to sleep, Fubuki had been more or less in nonstop activity mode. She wasn’t sure if Fubuki had actually laid down in a bed the entire time she’d been in Heaven so far.

Sora was wrong about Korone, however. Mostly because Okayu, in her relaxed manner, had chosen to continue still having a sleep cycle, and while Korone’s sleep cycle didn’t really exist, she enjoyed Okayu’s company enough that she ended up often napping alongside her.

Sora smiled at the memory of the first time she caught the two sleeping in bed together, Korone's arms wrapped around Okayu.

_That was adorable._

She spotted an angel flying through the clouds, circling their house. It happened sometimes; some souls found themselves engrossed in continually expanding their horizons, rather than relaxing and staying put.

This wasn’t a case of that, however. No, in this particular case, it was an angel that Sora actually knew personally: Amane Kanata.

Sora conjured her wings - a blue set of ethereal wings, (2) and then paused. She still wasn’t confident in her flight, so trying to meet Kanata mid-flight would most likely go poorly - she’d most likely miss and then Kanata would have to fly her over back to her own house, which would be embarrassing.

She dismissed the wings and waved to Kanata, who’s flight path closed in on the house.

Unfortunately for Kanata, one of her friends _had_ tried the fly-by-greeting, and it was Shirakami Fubuki. The good news is, with some flight lessons from Subaru, Fubuki managed to not go careening past Kanata.

This would be because Kanata, having lived her entire life as an angel, was actually quite good at flying, and managed to catch Fubuki directly out of the air. She landed in front of the house, and then dropped Fubuki on the ground, giving her a very unimpressed look.

“Fubuki-senpai...you may want to learn how to fly.”

“Um...none of us have figured it out except Subaru, and she can’t explain how she does it. Okayu just goes really slowly.”

Kanata facepalmed. She’d been an angel for long enough that she had forgotten how difficult angelic flight actually was.

“I guess I should teach all of you, shouldn’t I?”

* * *

The seven former mortal heaven-bound hololive members stood around Kanata, with their ethereal wings conjured (3) and stance ready for flight.

Kanata lectured the group: “The thing that makes spiritually-empowered flying complicated is that it’s basically two very different parts - the part that allows you to diminish the effects of gravity, and the spiritual thrust that actually allows you to control your direction. Because of this, it’s easy to lose control. If you spin, you have to manually cancel it out; there’s no physical mechanism to stop. (4)

“What Subaru did is pretty simple: she figured out that you need to correct your personal gravity so she still has it. This allows you to jump with the thrust, but still land as necessary. If you turn gravity off entirely, then you have only your own spiritual power to correct your height, which makes stopping _really_ hard. If you want to fly gracefully, you need to learn how to _fall_ gracefully.”

The other members were silent, they weren’t expecting Kanata to have such a scientific explanation of angelic flight.

Sora decided to try first - she’s the _daisenpai,_ so it’s her job to try showing her kouhais how it’s done. At least, the kouhais who aren’t actually an angel. She was nervous; but she'd also been on stage enough times that this really didn't compare.

She jumped, wings extended, turned gravity off, and then used her flight magic to thrust herself into the sky.

The sensation was exactly as she remembered; the lack of control and the feeling that she doesn’t have a means of redirecting gracefully.

She concentrated, and then let gravity slowly creep back into her being. The arc of her flight, as a result, bent into a graceful parabola.

_Alright, time to go lateral._

She redirected her thoughts towards going sideways.

_If you spin, you have to manually cancel it out; there’s no physical mechanism to stop._

She applied the thrust continuously. The arc of her flight spiraled downwards, circling the floating island she called home. As she neared the ground, she let gravity take over more and more, until letting it work fully when she touched her feet down on the ground.

The rest of the gang bowed at her performance, including Kanata.

“Sora-senpai! That was amazing! You only just learned how to do this and you did it perfectly!”

She squealed in delight; she wasn’t expecting Sora to take to it so well.

Sora looked around, and realized that Fubuki was missing.

“Where did Fubuki-chan go?”

Kanata pointed to the sky.

Fubuki had taken to learning to fall gracefully fairly literally, as in, she was currently falling and in a flight path with the group.

_Oh no._

Fubuki, who had gravity on, lightened the effects of gravity, and focused her thoughts on going up. The correction was accurate; she had successfully switched from a vertical fall into a horizontal dive.

The only problem is that she was going too fast, and she wasn’t powerful enough to stop herself from the current flight path of her friends, leaving herself with one option to stop: turn gravity back on and land on the ground. She bent her legs with the intent of going into a roll on touchdown.

It almost worked. The problem was that she was going fast enough that she lost control and continued rolling towards them like a bowling ball.

All of the members of the group jumped out of the way, except Kanata, who held out a hand, which Fubuki rolled into. Kanata’s form held entirely still, not budging an inch, while Fubuki comically bounced off, her roll stopped in its tracks. (5)

“Maybe consider a little less velocity, Fubuki-senpai?”

Fubuki laughed.

* * *

It had been a good couple of hours practicing flight, but for the most part, the group was tired. Even Fubuki and Korone had managed to exhaust themselves, though the group was fairly certain that wouldn’t last. They’d all decided to hang out at Sora’s house, which was informally termed the ‘Heaven House’.

Kanata smiled. “It gets easier with practice. Eventually you’ll be doing it naturally.”

Sora breathed heavily from being physically exhausted.

“I sure hope so!”

Fubuki interjected into the conversation.

“Kanatan, I meant to ask, did you finish your term with the angel court?”

Kanata’s smile immediately faded.

“No; I’ll be going back to the court soon. Kurumi just gave me some time off because she felt bad about the last trial I was in.”

“Really?”

“Coco-tan was judged. It...didn’t end well. It’s a long story. I’ll tell all of you.”

* * *

The rest of the group had varying degrees of both shock and anger on their faces.

Sora just looked down at the table they’d seated themselves at, mostly just horrified.

Fubuki looked down. “Didn’t...didn’t Coco die with you?”

Kanata looked like she was putting forth a herculean effort to avoid crying.

“Yes. She...when the end happened, she wrapped the dragon parts of her body around me. She didn’t need to; as an angel I’m bound to Heaven and would reincarnate because I’m mostly a spiritual being that only kind of has a physical body. She did that because she wanted to. She did it because she wanted to spend her last moments with me. And she got thrown into Hell for it.”

Mio decided to intervene in the conversation.

“Do...do you regret it?”

Kanata couldn’t hold it anymore; she cried.

“I should! Angels aren’t supposed to get attached to mortals or mortal desires! But I fell to all of them. The dinners - eating is a thing angels don’t need to do - the rings, even just falling asleep together - angels don’t need sleep either, as you are probably aware from living here - all of these mortal desires _that I wanted so badly that I fell from Heaven to experience._ They found Coco guilty...because they don’t want to convict one of their own to Hell.”

She lowered her head to the table, still audibly upset.

“I wanted to be part of the Kiryu family, with Coco. I _truly_ wanted that. I’m a disgrace to the angelic ideals of purity. I _should_ regret it. But I _don’t._ If offered, I’d do it again without any hesitation.”

The rest of the gang just looked sadly at Kanata. They had picked up on hints here and there about how strict the angels were; but this was the first time seeing it so clearly in front of them.

Sora had decided that she had enough. She looked at Fubuki, who looked back at her, their thoughts aligned with each other.

_We’re not going to let this stand, angels or not. But how…?_

Mio spoke, breaking the silence.

“It’s not the first time we’ve been upset with the Heavens. We’re still trying to figure out how to get Ayame up here, and Heaven’s internet doesn’t go cross-realm for us, at least without permission from the higher angels.”

Kanata blinked.

“Oh, I can connect you guys back online. Back before I fell into the mortal realm, I was actually quite well-connected; and the internet is still kind of new among the angels so they never remembered to revoke my access to cross-realm.”

Fubuki responded, her mind connecting the dots. “Oh, right! You actually used to livestream from the heavenly realm!”

“Yeah. Can you guys all add me on Discord? I can setup a server to-”

She paused, and then her eyes widened.

“Wait, I can get back on a server with Coco-tan!”

She paused. Her face fell, looking extremely guilty.

Sora spoke softly to her Kouhai. “Kanata?”

Kanata answered solemnly.

“Do you think Coco-tan’s forgiven me for getting her thrown into Hell?”

Sora’s face took on a melancholic expression.

“From what you told us, she jumped deeper into the underworld to defend you. I think she’ll be just as happy as you to find out you can still talk.”

There was a fairly distinct visual contrast from the fluffy-cloud-and-floating-island theme of the heavenly realm compared to the members of hololive pulling out their phones, all to add Kanata back to their contacts.

All of the members looking at each other, it was Subaru who then asked the obvious question:

“Um, Kanata, are you sure you’re supposed to do this? This seems like something you could get in trouble for.”

Kanata shrugged. “What are they going to do? Force me to serve on the courts indefinitely? They already did that as punishment for failing to resist my temptations. You see, they really, _really,_ don’t want to take away angel wings after they’ve been granted; I’ve had mine for decades. It’s a huge deal whenever it happens; they won’t take my wings over something this small.”

She pressed some buttons on her phone. A message popped up for the rest of them:

_You’ve been invited to join a server: HoloHeaven_

* * *

Meanwhile, in the underworld, a couple of hololive members got a notification.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) I am not apologizing for that pun.
> 
> (2) Alright, here’s the reference if anyone is wondering where I’m getting the wing colours from: https://imgur.com/a/37mu8Yb
> 
> (3) So, following the penlight guide, the wing colors are: blue for Sora, red for AZKi, light blue for Fubuki, light green for Mio, yellow for both Korone and Subaru, and finally purple for Okayu.
> 
> (4) Fun fact: This is part of why it’s really hard to control spaceships; you really can’t stop. So I guess if you worked on space flight in your mortal life, you don’t need the gravity manipulation.
> 
> (5) If you’re wondering how that actually works, all I’ll say is “uhhhhh anime physics”
> 
> Cameo Appearance:  
> Ririsya (Independent): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ucgoC_sGww_Euu5iMqpQw


	9. Underground (and overground) Initiations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayame's excited to catch up with her friends, as is everyone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll admit I think a lot of the insanity starts sorting itself out more cleanly in a couple chapters.
> 
> Finally learned how to apply a workskin! I’ll definitely start doing that more often in the future. It’s really nothing special; it’s just a discord-like workskin so I can separate the chat log from everything else since this chapter is mostly over text message.
> 
> Next stop: in-between, going back to the hololive fantasy members, and possibly we'll finally see the member I dropped a hint for a couple chapters ago show up.

In the underworld house, Ayame couldn’t believe her eyes, looking at the computer she had since moved to the place.

_You’ve been invited to join a server: HoloHeaven_

Yes, she was still stuck in the underworld, but it had suddenly got _far_ less lonely. It was lovely; and she could bet that she wasn’t the only one of her friends stuck in this position.

She accepted the invitation, excited.

**AmaneKanata** : Kon-Kanata!

**tokinosorach** : nun nun! (๑╹ᆺ╹) (1)

**AZKi_VDiVA** : konAZKi!

**oozorasubaru** : shuba shuba!

**nakiriayame** : Yo dayo!

**ookamimio** : kon-ban-miooooon!

**s_fbk** : kon-ban-kitsune! (2)

**s_fbk** : wait, Sora-senpai, do you actually still have your channel in Heaven? 

**tokinosorach** : …

**tokinosorach** : ฅ(๑>ㅅ<๑)ฅ

**tokinosorach** : got a bit ahead of myself there

**tokinosorach** : I’ll admit

**tokinosorach** : I’m still not okay with the end of the world and dying and everything

**tokinosorach** : I’m kind of a wimp

**s_fbk** : no you’re not

**AZKi_VDiVA** : I literally couldn’t be here without you

**AZKi_VDiVA** : And you were the only hololive idol for a long time, too.

**AZKi_VDiVA** : if you were truly a wimp you wouldn’t have managed that

**tokinosorach** : it’s just that

**tokinosorach** : it’s silly

**tokinosorach** : but I kind of want A-chan to show up first

**tokinosorach** : I don’t really want to restart my idol career without her.

**tokinosorach** : She was there for me at every single part of my hololive career.

**tokinosorach** : so I don’t really want to start until she arrives up in Heaven

**tokinosorach** : because I know she will make it here someday (｡•ᴗ•｡)♡

**ookamimio** : awwwww

**oozorusubaru** : that’s not silly!

**nakiriayame** : and everyone says MY cuteness cures depression

**AZKi_VDiVA** : that is unbelievably sweet of you

**AZKi_VDiVA** : well no, you’ve always been like that but you get what I mean

**s_fbk** : I think A-chan would tell you to start without her

**s_fbk** : she always believed in you from the very start

**tokinosorach** : I know, it’s just

**tokinosorach** : I don’t know

**tokinosorach** : It must feel to you like I don’t wanna do this anymore

**tokinosorach** : I apologize

**tokinosorach** : I really wanna do it again, it’s just

**tokinosorach** : not right now, I guess?

**tokinosorach** : but on the other hand I feel bad about it

**s_fbk** : no, don’t!

**AZKi_VDiVA** : Sora, you literally died and unlike some of us

**AZKi_VDiVA** : you were unlucky enough to remember what dying was like

**AZKi_VDiVA** : I think you’ve earned a good long break from everything

**tokinosorach** : How about the rest of you? I know I’m delaying my re-debut...

**s_fbk** : I need to recreate my gamer pc setup first, I didn’t get to keep it from the mortal world

**oozorasubaru** : rest of us are kind of waiting on that too

**nakiriayame** : I’ve actually got mine so I could restart since it was in the underworld to start with

**nakiriayame** : I just don’t feel like going at it alone

**AZKi_VDiVA** : actually

**AZKi_VDiVA** : I miiiiight be in the process of finding a venue to sing at

**AZKi_VDiVA** : I’m basically destined to be a singer no matter what, I guess

**tokinosorach** : You’re moving fast, but I guess that makes sense

**_KiryuCoco_ ** _has joined the server._

**KiryuCoco** : Okite okite okite!!! (3)

**AmaneKanata** : COCO!!!!!!!!

**AmaneKanata** : I’m sorry

**AmaneKanata** : I’m sorry you’re in hell because of me

**KiryuCoco** : eh

**KiryuCoco** : not really a big deal after I beat the demons up

**KiryuCoco** : they let me out of mid after they realized I was too much trouble

**Towasama** has joined the server.

**Towasama** : correction

**Towasama** : after she beat me into unconsciousness in the underworld arena while I was high on devil magic

**AmaneKanata** : !!!

**s_fbk** : !!!

**nakiriayame** : Yeah it was really scary

**nakiriayame** : Towa-sama actually acted like a devil for a bit

**Towasama** : I AM a devil

**Towasama** : but yeah all of the holo-demonfolk are living together now, alongside Coco

**Towasama** : hololive’s so-far only actual sinner

**Towasama** : which is kind of impressive, the angels used to be less forgiving about everything

**KiryuCoco** : anyways Kanatan

**KiryuCoco** : it isn’t your fault

**AmaneKanata** : you went to hell for me

**AmaneKanata** : I was ready for you to say that you didn’t love me

**AmaneKanata** : you could’ve avoided it all if it weren’t for me

**KiryuCoco** : by saying I didn’t love you to your face in front of the angels?

**KiryuCoco** : I love you kanatan but there’s no way I would do that even if you wanted me to

**KiryuCoco** : and to be honest yelling at the angels felt really good, even if that got me in trouble

**s_fbk** : That’s our Coco.

**ookamimio** : that was sweet of you but maybe think things through a bit more before you do that

**Towasama** : That was remarkably brave of you

**Towasama** : also very foolish, but brave nonetheless

**Towasama** : gimme a bit

**_yozoramel_ ** _has joined the server._

**_yuzukichoco_ ** _has joined the server._

**Towasama** : there we go

**yozoramel** : konpaku!

**Towasama** : that’s everyone from the underworld I know of

**s_fbk** : alright, so that leaves us with…

**s_fbk** : Sora, AZKi, Mel, Choco, Subaru, Ayame, Towa, Kanata Coco, and all four gamers.

**s_fbk** : that’s who we’ve connected with so far

**nakiriayame** : wait, all four gamers?

**nakiriayame** : where are Korone and Okayu?

**ookamimio** : let me wake them up, they’re sleeping and they were too cute to wake up

**ookamimio** : we tend to let Korone sleep since she sleeps so rarely anyways

**s_fbk** : it’s not like we actually physically need sleep anymore

**s_fbk** : aside from it feeling nice to lie down sometimes

**_nekomata_okayu_ ** _has joined the server._

**_inugamikorone_ ** _has joined the server._

**nekomata_okayu** : mogu mogu

**inugamikorone** : yubi yubi

**s_fbk** : kon kon!

**ookamimio** : awoooooo~

**tokinosorach** : (๑╹ᆺ╹)

**inugamikorone** : sorry for being late

**inugamikorone** : I had a sleeping okayu hugging me

**inugamikorone** : didn’t want to disturb

**nekomata_okayu** : you should’ve woken me up earlier for this

**nekomata_okayu** : and korone you had your arms around me too don’t deny it

**nekomata_okayu** : it was really comfy

**s_fbk** : so we still need to find: gen 5, gen 3, Watame, Luna, Aqua, Shion, Haato, AkiRose, Matsuri, Suisei, Miko, and Roboco

**s_fbk** : and that’s just for the hololive main branch!

**Towasama** : We don’t have any contact with the in-between.

**Towasama** : so bare in mind that most of us might be there

**AmaneKanata** : the issue is, the afterlife committee’s pretty big on not preserving mortal possessions into the afterlife, as I’m sure you’re aware, so we don’t get to keep our computers

**AmaneKanata** : which can make it slightly hard to get in contact

**YuzukiChoco** : we demons are just keeping theirs from the start.

**YuzukiChoco** : as native underworlders don’t really die in the same way mortals do.

**YuzukiChoco** : I don’t actually know, but I assume it’s similar for angels?

**AmaneKanata** : yeah but I don’t have the time

**AmaneKanata** : I’m on angelic community service as punishment for falling for mortal temptations

**AmaneKanata** : so I’m stuck here for approximately forever

**AmaneKanata** : it’s been what, a decade or two since I started?

**tokinosorach** : what?

**oozorasubaru** : what??

**s_fbk** : what???

**KiryuCoco** : holy hell I knew time passed fast but THAT fast?

**AmaneKanata** : we compressed time in the administration so it only feels like a few days

**AmaneKanata** : so we can work through the backlog at an acceptable pace

**AmaneKanata** : my shift is decades long internally, it’s a couple of weeks for you guys

**KiryuCoco** : that’s horrible though, you’ve spent that long in that soulless place

**AmaneKanata** : I broke angel rules, a decade is actually pretty lenient

**AmaneKanata** : anyways in theory we reverse the time compression when you actually get through administration

**AmaneKanata** : the thing is that in practice time decompression is complicated and it can go wrong

**AmaneKanata** : so sometimes they just throw some people years early or ahead

**AmaneKanata** : we’re actually through enough of the backlog now that most of us should be in our afterlives by now.

**AmaneKanata** : though bare in mind that I don’t see all of us, so there may be a case or two I’m unaware of

**AmaneKanata** : the only anomalies on my end were that Luna was unusually early, as was Noel

**AmaneKanata** : both of them got sent to the in-between

**AmaneKanata** : oh, and according to schedule Amelia Watson is last.

**AmaneKanata** : as in, she’s after literally everyone else from Earth arrives.

**AmaneKanata** : That’s mostly because she’s actually not dead yet, we’re still waiting for her

**s_fbk:** Well at least we know where she is then!

**AmaneKanata** : and for some reason Ina and Gura have deferred judgements until Ame arrives

**AmaneKanata** : this is despite the fact they’re already dead

**AmaneKanata** : so all of hololiveEN is going to arrive together

**Towasama** : wait, can you give me admin privileges

**AmaneKanata** : sure

**AmaneKanata** : especially since I’m being called back later today

**Towasama** : and they accuse us devils of harsh punishments, geez

**AmaneKanata** : Well to be fair I’ve already missed like three months of afterlife trials internally

**AmaneKanata** : it’s just that’s only been today from the outside

**AmaneKanata** : the good news is that from your perspective I’ll be back in a couple of days

**AmaneKanata** : so there’s that to look forward to

**Towasama** : though really I don’t see what more we can do to see each other

**Towasama** : the barriers between the afterlives are pretty much impenetrable as far as I know

**Towasama** : only by being legitimately summoned through can people get to other realms

**Towasama** : there are no ‘holes’, just those with permission to subvert the wall entirely

**KiryuCoco** : I feel hololive might end up testing that theory

**AmaneKanata** : Coco, please don’t get in more trouble with the angels somehow

**KiryuCoco** : Kanatan, I’m not _that_ careless.

_Several people are typing…_

**KiryuCoco** : Just because I deliberately annoyed the angels once doesn’t mean I’ll do it again!

_Several people are typing…_

**KiryuCoco** : Fine, I promise I won’t do anything that gets me thrown into lower underworld

**Towasama** : We joke about it but lower underworld is _really_ hardcore.

**Towasama** : Take it from a former archdevil

**Towasama** : Lower is for torturing legitimately terrible souls and playing horrific power games

**s_fbk** : how did you become archdevil at all if that’s the case

**Towasama** : …I was a perfectly competent devil.

_Several people are typing…_

**Towasama** : OKAY FINE

**Towasama** : I was so good at paperwork that the other devils didn’t want to lose me

**Towasama** : Until they decided to get rid of me for being ‘too nice’

**Towasama** : which is why I’m a _former_ archdevil and not a current one

**Towasama** : don’t you dare call me an angel, I can feel you guys about to

**Towasama** : anyways, plans

**yuzukichoco** : If we assume everyone not present has arrived and is in the in-between

**yuzukichoco** : which is admittedly unlikely, but let’s work with that assumption

**yuzukichoco** : then we basically have, broadly speaking, two groups.

**yuzukichoco** : One is our group here, and the other is everyone in the in-between.

**yozoramel** : how do we know they’ll find each other

**s_fbk** : I have faith in our friends to find each other

**yuzukichoco** : Then we’ll work together on our end to communicate with each other

**yuzukichoco** : which hopefully leads to actually figuring out how to visit each other’s afterlives.

**s_fbk** : That’s amazing! We could really make this work!

**yuzukichoco** : We are admittedly making a lot of assumptions here.

**yuzukichoco** : But I think there is reason to be optimistic.

**Towasama** : In light of not having any actual staff directing us, I do want to ask someone I trust

**Towasama** : Sora-senpai, what do you think? I’m still down in the underworld. @tokinosorach

**tokinosorach** : I’ll be honest

**tokinosorach** : There’s so much that can go wrong, so many reasons this could fail.

**tokinosorach** : But that was true back when we were alive, and it didn’t stop us then.

**tokinosorach** : So let’s make our story continue beyond the stage!

**s_fbk** : did you just do that to name drop one of mortal live concerts

**KiryuCoco** : way to ruin her moment there

**Towasama** : Yeah, I’m a devil and even I wasn’t going to point that out.

**tokinosorach** : It’s just a text message in our chat, it’s no big deal.

**tokinosorach** : And maybe I did. (๑╹ᆺ╹)

Ayame laughed at the antics of her formerly mortal friends.

She couldn’t believe how lucky she was.

She admitted to Fubuki that she didn’t feel too bad about going home to the underworld. That was where home was to her. Even when she moved into Mel’s place, the underworld was still home.

That was still true. But now the idea was almost tantalizingly in reach: Nakiri Ayame wanted to see her friends. With every message sent, the underworld felt less and less like home. Maybe this was what she needed to admit it; home was where the heart was, and Ayame’s heart just wasn’t cut out for the underworld.

Hololive never left her, even when the world ended.

She also remembered that demons weren’t allowed into Heaven under any circumstances whatsoever. It had always been that way, with no one really explaining _why_ that was the case.

Towa had made a good point; the barriers separating the afterlives were most likely not going to fall easily. They had a record of countless years making sure no one crossed who wasn’t supposed to; who were hololive to oppose it?

On the other hand, they had something that most people didn’t: an angel cooperating on the other side. Kanata might be willing to break the rules in their favour, especially if it meant she was able to meet Coco again. The situation involving their separation sucked, but at least it’s clear that no love was lost. (4)

And, if nothing else, Coco would definitely be willing to break more rules to see Kanata again.

Ayame laughed again at the thought of Coco attempting to act perfectly virtuous to get into Heaven.

_Yeah, right._

“What’s so funny?”

_Oh right, Coco lives with us now._

“You’re totally planning on getting in trouble with the angels again, aren’t you.”

Coco raised an eyebrow while staring at Ayame.

“They already threw me down here into hell. What are they going to do after that, demonetize me?”

Ayame laughed. Mortal jokes really do die hard in the underworld, apparently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) I never realized it before, but Sora emotes a lot in text; the number of text emotes on her twitter is really funny, which is being referenced here with the emotes she uses.
> 
> (2) Like usual, not translating any of these because they’re essentially verbal tic catchphrases so there’s no point really trying.
> 
> (3) “Wake up wake up wake up!”
> 
> (4) If anything, it did the opposite, making Coco and Kanata realize that they had surpassed the barrier of ‘just friends’. It’s just too bad that they never realized while they were alive.


	10. Of Knights and Princesses (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This two-parter is the last chapter of HoloAfterLive the fic, but not of the HoloAfterLive universe - I'll elaborate more on how that's going down when I actually post the second part; but for the most part the HoloAfterLive 'verse is kind of a playground where I mix silly spaghetti plotlines (a term I just made up and yet I don't feel like I have to define) and existential philosophy, and now that I have the setting mostly defined singular coherent plots within the three afterlives are a lot more possible, which means I can split the fics into individual fics with a lot more coherency, rather than having a tangled mess of spaghetti plotlines that gets progressively harder to follow.
> 
> It also allows me to write things in the future and then go back to the past; whereas I try to keep individual fics from going too wild timeline wise (since that makes it much harder to follow).
> 
> This chapter is split into two parts for length reasons, because I had too much fun with both the AquShio shared trauma duo and the PekoMiko absolute chaos duo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before the rest of hololive fantasy had appeared, a single human stood in defense of elves, determined to end hostilities between the two races, with absolute strength if required.
> 
> You’d be hard pressed to believe that Shirogane Noel was the infamous war-ending terror on the battlefield if you ever talked to her.

Shirogane Keep looked almost exactly like Houshou Marine thought it would. Namely, large and certainly imposing, but not particularly decorated or made harsher in its look. From the ground level, it was essentially just a rather tall stone box. Even the lookout at the top was similar; designed with windows that maximized viewing angle while minimizing the area that one could be shot back from.

There were two things one could learn from the design; one was that, if you tried to start a war here, it would be very short-lived; whoever guarded this place was well organized. Two was the opposite; while you certainly didn’t want to fight, this wasn’t a place that you wanted to go out of your way to avoid; as a peaceful civilian you’d likely be protected here. The building did not make any attempt to look threatening.

Houshou Marine, on the other hand, saw the design not from the perspective of purpose, but more from the fact that it reflected the character of the one who likely was the leader of its construction. Noel, for the most part, was a relatively simple person; making protracted symbolic statements with building design was simply not her style.

What impressed Marine more was the settlement that had gathered around the area. From the looks of things, it was a mixed-race town; she spotted both humans and elves walking about the streets.

It was this view of both the town and the stone structure that was designed for its defense that told the story; a story of a knight who wished to keep people together, and was willing to use a show of power to keep things peaceful.

She smiled at the sight. “It’s a nice place, Noe-chan.”

Noel also smiled - the tranquility was nice, given the history she had single-handedly helped forge.

“I’ll admit, I’m glad Flare was able to convince the rest of the elves I wasn’t the enemy. I couldn’t have done it without her - I’m human, after all.”

Flare stood beside her partner.

“I mean, you would never make enemies out of my own friends. You practically ended the human-elf war over that, and redrew the boundaries in a manner that everyone agreed upon.”

Marine smiled mischievously.

“Was it over that or did you two do that because you wanted to make your love no longer count as forbidden?”

Noel and Flare simply gave Marine a slightly guilty look.

“Well, I shouldn’t question your love. I _am_ your prisoner.”

Uruha Rushia, who was behind the trio, spoke, her mind realizing something: “Wait, Noel has her knights, and Flare has the elves with her, but what about you, Marine? Where are the rest of the Houshou pirates?”

Marine pointed past Rushia to Doris, Shion, and Aqua.

“As of right now, that’d be all of them; I’ve been on the run for a little while. Thanks for sending the order of Shirogane after me, as it got everyone else off my tail.

“Also, I stopped being a pirate when I arrived on the shores of wherever we are. It was fun for a little bit, but I don’t have a ship, and, to be honest, I still feel guilty about traumatizing poor Shion and Aqua.”

Flare asked the obvious follow up: “Marine, what exactly happened?”

“Well, I kind of got the ship sunk. While we were still on it. I think we should find somewhere to stay; it’s a fairly long story.”

Noel pointed towards the keep.

“I think that qualifies as a place to stay. We’re all friends here; it’s as good a place as any. Speaking of our friends,” She turned to Doris. “...I don’t think I really know you.”

<It’s understandable. I...wasn’t really part of hololive when it all ended.>

Noel couldn’t understand what Doris was saying due to the language barrier, but she recognized the language. “Oh, wait! You were from hololiveCN, of course you’re welcome to join us!”

She motioned with her hands to come along, trying to communicate without words.

Doris smiled; it was honestly hard to believe Noel was a feared terror in battle given how she was acting now. She followed along.

Noel remembered the two members who had mostly hung out behind the group.

“Ah, right. Shion, Aqua, how are you doing?”

Aqua moved behind Shion, looking like she was trying to use Shion to hide from the eyesight of the others (2).

Shion sighed.

“Not sure how you guys are memory wise, but Aqua...she doesn’t remember any of it. She doesn’t remember any of _us._ I...I don’t really know what I’m doing, to be honest. Oh, and for the record,” she turned to Aqua, addressing her best friend. “This would be Noel, Flare, and Rushia, from hololive’s 3rd generation. They know you; and they’re good friends.”

Noel, Flare, and Rushia recoiled from the revelation.

Aqua still looked nervous beyond all belief.

Rushia extended her hand towards Aqua, with a melancholic smile.

“It’s okay. You’re still part of hololive just as much as any of us are. We’re still your friends, as long as you accept it.”

Aqua said nothing, but raised her hand to meet Rushia’s.

Marine smiled. “Alright, let’s move in; you might as well find out how we got washed up here.”

* * *

A long distance from this group, Usada Pekora woke up, having moved in with Sakura Miko out of convenience.

It was a peaceful life, for the most part. She couldn’t shake the urge to prank Miko again; she wasn’t sure what it was but something about that girl just seemed to invite a good round of messing with her or two.

But she resisted the urge, mostly because she had nowhere else to stay. Sakura Miko was filling the hole in her memory quite nicely; she had remembered the fact there was a best friend who had been with her as long as she could remember, but she was now absolutely certain it was Miko - she’d been a good host to Pekora. She couldn’t have asked for someone else to treat her better.

It also helped that Miko actually remembered Pekora; if she had the same accursed memory hole for her friends that Pekora did, it would’ve made the first interaction awkward.

But, as much as Pekora loved the little shrine that the two of them were staying at, she also was starting to get a little restless. She loved it here; but she couldn’t stay here.

Not while the rest of her friends were still missing from memory. She remembered having the time of her life; and it was going to bug her for the rest of eternity if she couldn’t attach faces to all of the feelings that she remembers from her mortal life. She _had_ to find them, regardless of what it took.

She checked her bag, preparing to pack up and leave. She wouldn’t forget the kindness, but the Sakura Shrine simply wasn’t home to her.

She looked at her supplies.

_Huh, I could’ve sworn I had more dynamite than this. Oh well, it’ll do for now._

And then she walked outside.

* * *

“And that’s how that all happened. To be honest, it’s all kind of crazy to me that we’re all still alive; but to be honest, I don’t think I could live with myself if I had drowned Shion-tan and Aqu-tan. I’m not going to set sail after that, I think; I can hardly call myself _Senchou_ after that incident, given it was sheer luck that saved us; we washed up on shore.”

The members had gathered around a table. Looking around, most of the members had rather understandable responses: Flare and Rushia with shock at the story, while Doris, Shion, and Aqua all shared looks of shared trauma; in particular, Aqua had scooted over closer to Shion, who had silently put an arm around her.

Doris had elected to remain silent; it would be hard to talk with the language barrier in the way.

Only one member seemed to be off in that chain of response: Noel, who just had a dead serious look on her face.

Flare was the first to notice.

“Noel? Is something wrong?”

Noel seemed to catch up to her emotions; the anger wiped off her face.

“It’s just...nevermind, I’ll worry about it later.”

“It’s clearly not nothing, Noel.”

“It’s not something that should be brought up right now.”

Flare just stared at Noel.

“Alright...but we’re talking about this later.”

The rest of the table looked at the duo, wondering what they were thinking.

Noel smiled, and turned to the rest of the group.

“Ah well, I was thinking about things. I’m really sorry about what happened to you guys; the experience you went through on the ocean sounds terrifying. As I happen to run this place, well, I consider you all guests. Feel free to call this home for now; if anything I’m happier to have you guys over. So please, if you need to rest, do so here.”

She turned to Aqua and Shion in particular.

“Barring a calamity of the highest order, you’ll be safe here. We were friends. Especially you, Aqua - I hope you find it in you to get acquainted with us. We would certainly like to become friends with you once again, if you’re willing.”

The rest of the table looked to the two of them. Noel’s hospitality was inviting, but Aqua’s social anxiety was hard to break - Noel, Flare, and Rushia became painfully aware of the fact that they were strangers to her, and Aqua was in a completely unknown place, as far as she knew. A few seconds passed, with silence filling the table. And then...

A faint whisper was heard from Aqua.

Shion sighed.

“Speak up. They gotta hear you.”

“I want to try. I want to remember what the happiness of hololive felt like again.”

* * *

Sakura Miko waited outside, on the shrine grounds.

She had enjoyed her time with Pekora. She truly had.

But she could see the restlessness clearly; Pekora was a soul who wanted to move out, to find her friends once again. She couldn’t keep her here forever, as much as she wanted to.

Especially since it really would be forever this time.

So when Usada Pekora walked out onto the shrine grounds with her bag packed and a pose that indicated she was ready to leave, she thought she was ready.

She looked at Pekora.

“You’re just like I remember, Usada. I’ll miss you.”

Pekora flashed a grin at Miko.

“You too, Miko-senpai. It’s weird, I thought I had more dynamite with me - I know I only used the one to get your attention peko.”

“Ah, I borrowed this, so I should give it back.”

Miko laughed, and then handed the already-lit stick of dynamite to Pekora.

Pekora’s eyes widened, and then she threw the explosive upwards, where it detonated in mid-air.

“That’s ELITE Miko to you, Usada!”

Usada Pekora grinned out of familiarity, and then turned around.

“Bye-bye, Miko-senpai!”

* * *

Aqua took a seat in her bed, looking around the guest room that she’d been assigned to rest in. It was comfortable; she couldn’t explain it, but there was a relief she felt at falling into the bed. It was the kind of relief that one felt at the end of a long journey; not the relief of survival, but the sense that, for the first time in a long time, she could unwind, and think about things. Shion was out; she wasn’t sure where she was, leaving Aqua alone in her room for a bit.

This world, she had decided, was cruel, but the people in it were not. The world could take away her memory, her sense of safety, and even take away the very air she breathed; it was enough to make her want to just crawl into bed and never come out again.

But the friends she had made had made that so much easier to withstand. She wanted to keep going along with them; there was an optimism that made her want to smile no matter what, even as the memory of her near-death haunted her.

A knock on the door made Aqua come to her senses.

“Aqu-tan? Are you here?”

It was Marine.

Aqua responded quietly: “...yes.”

“Can I come in? I...I want to speak with you.”

The tone caught Aqua off guard; she’d never heard Marine sound unsure of herself. Even when she was making fun of herself, or making statements about how she had screwed things up, she always sounded confident in her decisions.

Aqua wasn’t sure how to feel. But she knew that the right thing to do would be to talk to the one who had been acting like a kind and dependable older sister for as long as she’d been here.

“Go right ahead.”

The door opened, and Marine stepped in. She took a seat beside Aqua. It was comforting, somehow.

“I’m sorry about what happened. You really are a little family member to me; I truly don’t know what I’d do if we lost you when we sunk. I’m not a very good captain.”

“It was scary, but...you shouldn’t be sorry. There’s nothing you could’ve done. I wanted to come along...even if I wasn’t ready.”

Aqua shivered at the memory. She scooted closer to Marine, who put an arm around her.

“Are you okay? I know we haven’t had much time to talk things out with what happened.”

Aqua thought for what felt like a long time. She could say she was fine, that it hadn’t affected her too badly, that she wasn’t drowning in her sleep and needed help dealing with everything. That would be the easiest option, and Marine would likely not ask again.

She looked into Marine’s eyes. She didn’t want to bother her. But those eyes were someone who wanted to help, who _wanted_ to hear about the troubles of her friends.

Aqua couldn’t stop herself. She moved over, gave Marine a hug, and started crying, burying her face into Marine’s neck, holding on like she was the only thing keeping her from falling off a cliff.

“I felt like I drowned in my sleep last night. I still remember what it was like when I couldn’t breathe and it’s horrible and it’s cold and-”

Marine wrapped her arms around Aqua.

“It’s okay to admit that you’re not okay. Shion tries not to show it, but it hurts for her, too. Please, cry all you need, if you have to.”

The door opened, this time to the room’s other assigned occupant, Murasaki Shion.

Shion looked at both Marine and Aqua. It came across like a mother comforting her child.

Shion smiled, trying to avoid tearing up happily watching Marine gently patting Aqua’s head.

She failed, and then took a seat beside Marine.

“You know, I complain about you a lot, but...we need you. I don’t know how to handle trauma; I just yell at things and occasionally it feels less bad. Your kindness is basically the only reason Aqua is with us right now, and honestly, and I’m not sure how I’m doing now, either. I watched Aqua die twice, now. And I remember both times; I almost wish I didn’t. I don’t understand how you’re so positive in the afterlife. I don’t understand why you aren’t drowning in your sleep.”

Marine frowned, but spoke.

“Shion-tan...it’s a rule of sea goers. If you live on the high seas, eventually you’ll die on them, too. The fate of all pirates is to eventually find themselves on the bottom of the ocean. It’s the fate you accept when you live the life - or afterlife - that I wanted to live. As bad as drowning is...it’s kind of the fate I resigned myself to.

“When our ship broke apart, my only thoughts were whether the two of you were okay. The thing is, I knew the dangers of the water, and had accepted the fate that the ocean had brought to me. You two did not. And even I wasn’t ready; the sensation of what drowning is _really_ like...it’s a far scarier fate than I had imagined it to be.

“It’s why I don’t plan to set sail again for a long time. Putting you two through that experience isn’t befitting of one called _Senchou,_ and I hope that I can make that up to you two.”

Shion laughed very lightly.

“I think you already have. The promise that we won’t set sail for a little while is enough for me. The trauma sucks, but...well, we found our friends. Tomorrow is a new day; and really, when you’re sent to the ocean floor, things can only go up from there. Now, not to rush you, but I think both of us want some sleep.”

Marine smiled.

“Aqu-tan, Shion-tan...if you’re having any problems, please speak to me.”

Shion smiled.

“Thank you. This doesn’t mean I’m letting you sleep in the same bed as me, though.”

“Still don’t trust me on that, do you? I wasn’t even thinking about it; I’m just planning to go back to my room, which I’m currently sharing with Rushia.”

* * *

Pekora looked to the city within walking distance.

It looked surprisingly futuristic; a stark contrast to the traditional Japanese shrine that Pekora met Miko at.

She decided to keep moving forward, only stopping when she heard another pair of footsteps.

It was Sakura Miko, now following Pekora.

Pekora was puzzled by the turn of events. “I thought you were staying behind to take care of the shrine peko.”

“It’ll be fine. I was thinking about hololive, and...well, I really want to join up with them again. You made me realize that I’m not satisfied with only the memories I have of them. I want to make more, and I already have one friend to help me with that.”

Usada Pekora smiled.

“Then onwards, to the great unknown, peko!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Okay, that’s admittedly because she’s trying to hide. Social anxiety is like that sometimes.


	11. Of Knights and Princesses (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While hololive fantasy was in the process of arriving, the formerly split human factions integrated under the banner of Princess Himemori Luna (1), forming the kingdom of the moon.
> 
> No, it doesn’t make any more sense to the rest of the hololive members when they found out about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus marks the end of HoloAfterLive, though not the end of the universe I’ve made out of it; see the endnote for details, but the long story short is that it's finally time to split the arcs a little more formally, mostly because I have a lot more flexibility if I choose to do so.

Marine had woken up early. No particular reason; her roll-1d20-for-sleep rolled early this time. She decided to check up on the members that were still asleep for one reason or another, starting with her roommate.

Rushia was peacefully asleep. Deciding that it was best to not disturb her, Marine left the room, letting the necromancer continue her slumber.

The next group were the current members of the Houshou pirates. Peeking into Aqua and Shion’s room, she felt both a sensation both of warmth and of sadness staring into it. On one bed lay both Shion and Aqua, snuggled up to one another.

The sweetness was diminished by the look of pain on their faces; it was clear that sleeping through the night was still a struggle for them both.

It would get easier with time; each day removed from the horrendous experience on the ocean being one more day of which the terror of that night faded.

Marine decided to just let them be; it would be best to just let them rest, if they had managed to fall asleep.

Walking around, she ran into Noel, who happened to very much be awake, alongside her elven friend (2) Flare. Both of them seemed to be worked up about something, though exactly what wasn’t clear to Marine.

Marine, with all of the subtlety of a pirate (which is to say none at all), took the direct approach:

“Noe-chan, Fuu-tan, is something wrong?”

They both looked at each other, then back to Marine.

Noel answered: “Flare’s being stubborn. It’s an issue concerning me and a few of the Shirogane Knights.”

Flare responded to the remark, clearly somewhat annoyed: “And by concerning ‘her’ she means concerning the entire well-being of both the elven lands and the kingdom of the moon.”

Marine was slightly confused.

“Aren’t there peace terms between the two nations at this point?”

Flare sighed.

“It’s not a diplomatic problem as far as the Order of Shirogane is concerned. And yes, the kingdom of the moon will never truly be enemies with us, as long as the current ruler stands. Speaking of which, we should actually talk about that - though, we should wait for everyone to get up first; I think it’s necessary for everyone to know exactly how the situation unfolded, mostly because I can’t really believe it myself, despite helping orchestrate it.”

Marine supposed that Flare was right - she should wait to have information on what the situation _is_ before trying to work with it.

* * *

Over a thousand kilometers away, a violet-haired girl looked into the city.

She was shocked to find the Sakura Shrine empty; from what she had heard Miko was a bit of a NEET and never really left, but she supposed she shouldn’t be so surprised at her moving - Miko was being motivated by exactly the same person that had motivated herself to move out.

That, and it’s not like Miko and Pekora had gotten _that_ far; they were both on foot, which simply can’t cover distance all that fast.

She looked in the direction of Miko and Pekora - quite a distance separating them, but she had all of eternity to catch up, and she intended to do so sooner rather than later.

* * *

“So, I guess we should talk about the Order of Shirogane, and how that relates to the moon kingdom. I don’t really want to explain the boring stuff, but I guess I really should.”

Noel was speaking to the other members of hololive in the keep, who were all awake.

“So, the thing is, this land is a bit of a no man’s land - it’s technically part of the elven lands, but for the most part this chunk of land is the border region between the elven and human nations. This was important back when they were fighting each other, but nowadays that purpose isn’t really as important anymore. This is because, well, hostilities ceased when the otherwise ununified factions were incorporated into what’s known as the kingdom of the moon…”

Noel trailed off, implying a continuation of the sentence.

Aside from Flare, the rest of the room was dead silent, watching in surprise as Noel _sighed._

“...under the banner of Princess _Himemori Luna_ _._ ”

Silence reigned for a good fifteen seconds, with no one having a reaction to that. It was Marine who finally broke the silence, finally broken from the stupor of the revelation.

“Wait, Luna _actually_ made herself a princess?”

Flare also sighed.

“I found out about this much earlier than you did, and to be honest, I’m still about as baffled as you are.”

Shion responded next.

“This is Luna we’re talking about! You can’t just say she rules a nation and not explain how we got to this position!”

Noel shrugged.

“As far as I’ve heard, she showed up acting like she owned the place, and for some reason, people just kind of went with it. _Nobody_ has figured out what her secret is. To be honest, I’m pretty sure most of the moon kingdom’s citizens haven’t figured out why either; the only people who really know are probably the Lu-knights, her most trusted kingdom circle.”

Aqua recognized Luna’s name from the time that Marine talked about her mortal adventures in hololive, but she didn’t remember who she was.

She slumped down in her seat, saying nothing. The gesture, however, didn’t go unnoticed by the others. Marine turned to Aqua.

“Ah, right, you don’t remember Luna. She’s...well, apparently she’s _actually_ a princess now.”

Rushia just seemed puzzled by all of this, mostly by what seemed like an obvious problem:

“Okay, I can accept that people just followed her for some reason, but how can she, you know, actually _run_ a country? Of the things Luna was good at, logistics and other political things were not among them.”

Flare shrugged.

“I presume that there’s probably some actual government that operates underneath her that does all of that while she exists as the face of the kingdom. I saw that happen both in the elven and human mortal realms back when I was alive; it’s how she got people to see her as the face of the kingdom that still loses me. As Noel said, likely only her and the Lu-knights know.”

Noel went next, now ready to explain.

“So that leaves both of our states peaceful, and the Order of Shirogane stable.”

Marine saw the implication of what she left out.

“But the moon kingdom itself isn’t necessarily going to stay in one piece, even though you’d prefer it that way.”

Noel nodded her head, and then Flare responded to Marine’s comment.

“I’ve actually studied the history of the in-between; it’s a chaotic place, and nations tend to fall apart just as easily as they rise up. If we just try to leave things as they are, some calamity is going to bring down Luna’s kingdom. My own race only resisted it for so long by being incredibly widespread; which meant that they could lose quite a bit of country and still have a country, as seen when the humans moved in. The moon kingdom won’t have that option; it’s too compact.”

Shion laughed.

“So, wait, you’re confused about how Luna runs a country and then you help run her country for her? I feel you’re answering your own confusion here!”

Noel facepalmed, while Flare continued.

“You know, when you put it that way, it does sound like we’re running some sort of backdoor elven conspiracy, but it’s nothing nefarious or even organized at all. It’s just that...we do have a vested interest in keeping the moon kingdom from collapsing for as long as we can make it last.”

Noel continued the sentiment.

“That’s the new purpose of the Order of Shirogane. Now that it’s no longer needed as a hardline peacekeeper force, we can focus on other issues that threaten what I call the Lunar Alliance but officially has not been named.”

Shion replied back.

“So, what you’re saying is, Luna’s got you and the entire order wrapped around her little finger.”

Noel and Flare both glared at Shion for that remark.

But before they could reply, a helmeted soldier walked in on their meeting.

“Danchou, I apologize for the interruption, but for some reason the kingdom of the moon has made a move - a number of Lu-knights were spotted heading this way, alongside their princess.”

Noel didn’t even turn around. “If Hime-sama is with them, they most likely want to meet with us. I’ll handle this personally. The rest of you,” She said, pointing to the rest of the hololive members in the room, “may want to come with me.”

* * *

There was something about city life that Miko remembered fondly from her mortal memories. Despite her former occupation as being a shrine maiden in the full traditional miko (3) outfit, she was very glad she made the last-second decision to tag along with Pekora.

City life had given Miko an instinct; despite the fact that there were hundreds of people in the surrounding area, she knew she was being watched. Or maybe that was some sort of divine precognition going on; the afterlife had given some magical abilities in-line with her priestess role, but she didn’t have a good sense for them yet.

Regardless, her instincts told them something was about to happen.

“I feel like we’re being watched by an apex predator.”

Pekora stopped; as a rabbit girl, that phrasing indicated a small amount of danger.

That’s when a mysterious figure dropped down from above the two, landing in front of them. The impact hit the ground hard, scattering up a bit of dust, causing Miko and Pekora to look away briefly.

When they looked back at the mysterious assailant, they were confused by what they saw: a middle-aged man of Japanese descent who was very distinctly a little too _real_ for the context of the universe that this fanfic operates in. (4)

Pekora was confused. Miko was confused, but decided to comment on it:

“YAGOO?”

Joining the cast of people who mysteriously drop in on the cast dramatically, a new figure rushed in, this one with violet hair, jumping and landing in between the duo and their mysterious opponent.

 **Moona Hoshinova** had entered the scene, and had done so a little overdramatically, followed by reverting to confusion over the situation she had just dropped into.

Looking closely at the man, she now pointed out that something was off about the whole thing:

“That’s...just a picture? Who are you _really?_ ”

The YAGOO shield was moved out of the way, revealing the identity of its owner.

“La-lion!”

 **Shishiro Botan** looked back on the trio, breaking out into howling laughter.

“I can’t believe you guys actually fell for that!”

* * *

The Lu-knights stood their ground, but did not advance. Luna was mad, which was never fun, but on the other hand, stories of the order of Shirogane were known amongst most of them, and making _them_ mad would be an extraordinarily unwise move. 

Thankfully for them, Luna understood this, and let them wait outside - as far as Luna was concerned the whole ‘enforced no-touchy policy’ was dumb, but she wasn’t so unwise as to assume that nothing would go wrong if she just straight walked across the border zone, though she wished that Noel would draw up terms that allowed her to visit without causing any issues already, they were good friends and could definitely talk this out like adults (5).

She would have a talk with Noel and Flare about that later today. Thankfully, it wasn’t a very long definition of later, as Shirogane Noel, the leader of the order, walked out of the keep, alongside Flare, Rushia, Marine, Shion, Aqua, and Doris, the latter three of whom mostly stood behind the rest of them.

“Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!”

Noel, Flare, Marine, and Rushia all looked at each other.

_Oh no, she’s already here._

“Why’d you invite Marine, Aqua, and Shion to your place without me? They were travelling through my kingdom!”

Marine pointed out that it wasn’t _quite_ an invitation: “Luna-tan, I was _arrested,_ not invited.”

“You don’t look like a prisoner.”

“Fair enough, the entire arrest was just a scheme to get hololive fantasy back together.”

Luna pouted. “Who planned this scheme without telling me?”

Noel pointed at Flare, who pointed at Rushia, who pointed at Noel.

Luna simply looked unimpressed at this misdirection, but seemed to forget it quickly.

“Hmm...Danchou, can I join you guys? We have so much to catch up on, nanora.”

Noel sighed. No one could refuse Luna for very long, whether one broke immediately from looking at her and falling for her cuteness or from listening to her use her princess-speak.

Noel turned her head, facing the other soldiers of the keep, a few of her were slightly on edge at the sight of their leader getting referred to so casually, and several more who had the wisdom to see this interaction as entirely normal for the two of them.

“My knights, consider Himemori Luna a personal guest of mine. To the few of you that, for one reason or another, do not already know this: she’s one of my mortal friends. She just happens to somehow also be the princess of the kingdom next door.”

Luna seemed pleased enough with that response; as annoyed as she was at finding out she missed her friends travelling through her kingdom, she didn’t have the ability to actually stay mad over that when she could resume being friends once again, which was of a far higher priority.

* * *

Far away, a circle of four former friends were talking with one another.

Botan, as it turns out, had been in the city longer than the other three, and knew some places to hang out. She picked a nice little coffee shop to catch up with the other three members that had shown up.

Pekora was annoyed, mostly at herself. The exact same sense that she should know both of the newcomers hit her, just like it did with Miko. Particularly the moon-themed girl, she knew a lot of her memories of the shenanigans she got into back when she was alive involved her, and yet for some reason her face was entirely gone from her memory.

_What’s the phrase…‘hey…’? Argh, I definitely know this._

“Um, Pekora-senpai, are you alright…?”

It was Moona, who was worried about the silence, mostly because Pekora looked annoyed, not either smug or guilty-looking.

Pekora went with gut instinct.

“Hey Moona!”

Moona exhaled, letting out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding. Miko was shocked.

“Okay, good to see you actually remember me.”

Pekora froze.

“Um. The funny thing is, I don’t, peko. I just went by instinct, and the phrase ‘Hey Moona!’ came to mind. It would’ve been really bad if it turned out you weren’t Moona; but the truth is I don’t remember anyone peko~!”

Moona and Botan went wide-eyed.

Miko spoke first, breaking the silence.

“She still remembers most of the feelings and the happiness of hololive, but she can’t recall her friends. She’s still our little Usada.”

Moona interrupted, staring down Miko.

“There’s no hololive anymore. She’s _my_ Usada now.”

Pekora visibly sweat at the staredown.

“Please don’t fight over me…?”

Miko sighed out loud.

“Just because there’s no hololive right now doesn’t mean it needs to stay that way.”

Moona sighed.

“Yeah, you’re right. I miss my friends. I especially miss Risu and Iofi, given I used to be roommates with them. I just...well, I have no idea where to start. For all we know, the rest of them might have gotten sent to Heaven. Or maybe we got split up and the others are like, a thousand kilometers away.”

Botan frowned.

“True. Honestly, given our luck so far, our best bet might be to make ourselves as visible as possible, and hope that somehow we get members to find _us_ instead of trying to find them ourselves.”

Pekora and Miko both had thinking expressions on their faces.

Miko broke the silence first: “What do you think would make us obviously visible, though? What could we do that would make other people see us and spread the word about us? You think we could all just resume our careers as idols?”

Moona blinked.

“Wait, we were idols? Was I an idol? Maybe my mortal memory is wrong but...”

Pekora laughed.

“HA↑HA↓HA↑HA↓HA↑HA↓HA↑HA! Good joke peko. I’m thinking that we could join in to create something a little more...industrial. A construction company, to be specific.”

She grinned, her rabbit ears perking straight up.

“Let this be the first board meeting of _Usada Kensetsu._ You guys alright me being the CEO?”

Moona smiled.

“The honour is all mine, _Shachou._ ”

* * *

The other members of hololive fantasy were shocked at how good a diplomat Luna was.

Granted, their expectations were more or less set on the floor, but the fact of the matter was, between Noel, Flare, and Luna, the official peace terms had been drawn up surprisingly well; the _Lunar Alliance,_ as it was called, was now official. There was still a _bit_ of a no-touching-zone between the two nations that the order of Shirogane still held; but for the most part, it was now the official stance of the alliance that there would be no more pointing swords (6) at each other.

The deal was witnessed both by Luna’s knights, Noel’s knights, and several elven witnesses.

At the exact moment that Luna signed the final paper, the atmosphere changed. It went from the peaceful-but-somewhat-tense diplomat atmosphere to Luna immediately deciding that now she could act a lot less professional. She sighed, and let out a sound very distinctive to her:

“Naaaaaaaaaa~Lu-knights! I want to talk with my friends. Don’t worry, I know these people.”

Noel dismissed the knights, as Flare did the elven witnesses. All three follower groups got up and left the room.

Luna then turned to the three members of the room who _weren’t_ from hololive’s third generation.

“Aqua-senpai! Shion-senpai! How are you two doing? And...” she said, looking at Doris. “I don’t know you…?”

Aqua hid behind Shion.

Doris gave a polite greeting in Chinese: <I’m Doris.>

Shion finished the introduction, switching languages: “She’s from hololive China, back when that was...still a thing we had. She wasn’t part of hololive when everything ended. She also doesn’t speak the same language we do, though she’s trying to pick it up, mostly out of necessity.”

Luna didn’t seem to be bothered by the distinction; it all counted as far as she was concerned.

“We’re all friends here, nanora~. We’re all part of hololive.”

Aqua poked her head from behind Shion.

Marine sighed.

“Right, Luna, you don’t know - Aqua lost her memory. She doesn’t remember any of us. Aqu-tan, this is Himemori Luna. And, well, Hime-sama, you already know Aqua.”

Luna looked saddened at the revelation. And then, suddenly, time seemed to freeze; you could _feel_ the stars in Luna’s eyes.

“Wait, that just means I have to reintroduce her to hololive! I don’t mind doing that at all, she could join me, nanoraaaaaaaaaa~”

She jumped up, excited at the prospect of dragging Aqua along for a trip down a more literal memory lane.

She was then bonked on the head by Marine. Perhaps, under any other circumstances, there would be horror at the fact that she just bonked a foreign member of royalty on the head.

On the other hand, it was Luna, who was opting to pressure Aqua by being _obnoxiously_ cute, and they figured the Lu-knights would probably be sympathetic.

Luna just looked mad in that way that mostly was just adorable.

“That was mean~”

Marine and Shion were unimpressed, mostly because they were watching Aqua hide behind them.

Shion sighed.

“You might have forgotten, _Hime-sama,_ ” she said, emphasizing the title sarcastically, “but Aqua _isn’t very good with strangers,_ and you count as one right now.”

Luna frowned, but then bowed surprisingly gracefully to Aqua - her princess act no longer being just an act apparently had taught her some formalities, and behind her act there _was_ a very real drive to reunite hololive once again.

“I’m sorry, Aqua-senpai. I’m Himemori Luna, nanora~. I’d be pleased to call you a friend.”

Aqua slowly raised her hand towards Luna.

“Konaqua. You know me, but...I’m Minato Aqua.”

Everyone in the room smiled.

The quest to reunite hololive was on.

* * *

Kanata had gone back to the administration, most likely until all the souls of the mortal realm were finished being judged.

That left seven former members of hololive, all located in the heavenly realm.

Tokino Sora relaxed a bit. She hadn’t lied; she really didn’t want to restart her idol career without A-chan, and AZKi was right, the idea that the world had ended and she had died...Sora actually did want some time and space to process that.

As a result, Fubuki had led the drive to reunite. There was now contact with the underworld; the first step to reuniting her friends together had been completed.

* * *

In the underworld, another five members of hololive waited out the days. They had been contacted directly from Heaven itself. One obstacle at a time, the possibility of seeing each other once again opened up.

Coco smiled. She was still mad at the thought of Kanata’s endless days in the angelic administration, but at least there was an endpoint to it, now.

Admittedly it’d be difficult to room with her given their separation in afterlives, but rules hadn’t stopped her when she was alive and she wasn’t going to let them stop her now.

Towa looked at the server settings. She hadn’t figured out exactly what she was going to do or how she was going to find her friends once again, but she truly wanted to do so.

* * *

And in the in-between, two different groups, separated by vast geography, had found friends.

The lunar alliance, made official, had brought nearly all of hololive fantasy together.

Himemori Luna hated the paperwork because it was boring, but it was worth the result: she had a kingdom and some of her friends were with her. She couldn’t ask for a better afterlife; she wasn’t sure how this didn’t qualify as Heaven. Maybe it was and she was wrong about the afterlife she was sent to.

And, over a thousand kilometers away, the newly-reformed Usada Kensetsu made its move with the four members; it was time to start planning on a larger scale if they wanted to become highly visible.

Usada Pekora, the newly minted CEO of Usada Kensetsu, smiled. She might not know much about being an idol, but she certainly knew a lot about how to get attention from people.

* * *

None of them could have possibly known just how far their adventures were going to go, and certainly not the manner in which their quests would intersect one another.

And even more souls wandered their afterlives, yet to reunite with their friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Yes, the ‘Hime’ of ‘Himemori’ literally means ‘Princess’ in Japanese, causing a redundancy if you use the full royalty title, but on the other hand I’m writing this fic in English so, uh, yeah. This is also the first time I’ve written a footnote into the opening text of a chapter, which honestly is a good tone setter for silly this chapter is.
> 
> (2) Also known as her wife, but they haven’t made that official yet.
> 
> (3) I’m not apologizing for that pun, because hololive literally named their shrine maiden ‘Miko’. Seriously, how on the nose can you get?
> 
> (4) I’m sorry, poor 4th wall. You did nothing to deserve this, and yet here I am, firing missiles at you.
> 
> (5) Where ‘by adults’ we mean ‘without having to schedule things through official channels because that’s boring’.
> 
> (6) And for those who take after Moona, this also includes axes and other bladed weapons.

**Author's Note:**

> This was an absolute blast to write. I'm certainly not done in this universe yet (I still have hololiveEN, who aren't aren't dead yet, so naturally there's still more to write, and a large portion of the cast is still missing).
> 
> You're probably noticing the series AND collection this fic is a part of now (NOTE: I'm new to AO3, so if you don't see either, that's because I haven't finished setting them up yet)! The plot lines have finally gotten complex enough that it's time to split the arcs. It also makes sense, because this cast is large enough that there are a LOT of potential one-shots here and there that are easily possible to write in the HoloAfterLive universe.
> 
> With that in mind, I'm taking a page from lightningstormtc (he's the writer of the somehow even more chaotic KFP-verse) and opening up the universe! Mostly because this universe is quite large and honestly it'd be interesting to see what people's takes on it are, now that we've finally gotten things relatively developed in all three afterlives. I don't know if anyone wants to join this (the three-afterlife setup kind of makes any sufficiently advanced plot a mess of spaghetti plotlines), but there's also just plainly a lot of really fun room for interpretation, and also there's several characters who still don't actually have future plotlines established at all (The full list: All of holostars, all of hololiveCN except Doris, all of hololiveID except Moona, and then: Roboco, Suisei, Matsuri, AkiRose, Haato/Haachama, Watame, Nene, Polka, and Nene), which means there's still quite a bit of maneuvering room left in this universe.
> 
> So, if anyone else wants to write for this, I'm all ears (though, as a warning, if you do a holoEN plot arc, it WILL be declared non-canonical (though I might keep it in the collection if I like it, and my standards aren't terribly high) as I have my own plot already planned for that - remember that Amelia is still alive as of this fic, though not for that much longer - remember that we're in the apocalypse timeline). Also, feel free to use Kurumi if you feel like doing any other trial scenes, though you may want to substitute a different angel if you find Kurumi's hardline formal lawful neutral annoying to write (I certainly can find it restrictive, though that's by design).
> 
> If you have anything you want to ask, I can be emailed at wrswest@gmail.com, reached via DM on twitter (@wrsw7), or DM on discord (wrsw#0132), which is probably my most reachable platform.
> 
> I'll want to add anything I really like in this universe to the HoloAfterLive collection (though if for whatever reason you don't want me to I won't mind either).


End file.
